Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reassured NATO allies of the US’ commitment to the military transatlantic alliance at his first meeting of NATO foreign affairs ministers, while recalling Donald Trump’s message that the European countries and Canada need to further increase defence spending.
“The United States President Trump’s made clear he supports NATO, we’re going to remain in NATO,” Rubio told reporters in Brussels, stressing that the US wants the alliance to be stronger against any potential threat.
The top US diplomat said he expects to leave Brussels with a clear commitment from allies to spend 5% of their GDP on defence—an increase from the current 2%, which some European countries, such as Belgium, Italy, and Spain, still fail to meet.
“I understand there’s domestic politics after decades of building up vast social safety net that maybe don’t want to take away from that and invest more in national security, but a full-scale ground war in the heart of Europe is a reminder that hard power is still necessary as a deterrent,” he said.
Rubio’s comments come after Donald Trump said last month that the US would not defend its allies unless they increased burden-sharing within the alliance. “It’s common sense, right,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in early March. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”
The transatlantic alliance is currently assessing its capability gaps before committing to a new defence spending target, but a final figure is not expected until the annual NATO summit in June in The Hague.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that European NATO members have recently committed to the largest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, though he agreed with the US that more must be done.
“It’s my assumption that what we need to spend, the Canadians and Europeans together, will be north of 3%,” the former Dutch prime minister said on his way in to the two-day meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels.
Rubio stressed that raising defence spending to 5% cannot be done “in one year or two”, but the US now demands a real way forward from its allies to build a stronger NATO capable of defending its territories.
The NATO chief also warned that the global security threats facing the Alliance are increasingly interconnected and that the Russian threat will persist for many years.
“We are seeing what China is doing. We’re seeing how these two theatres, the inner Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic are getting more and more connected by the fact that the Russians are working together with the North Koreans, with the Chinese, with Iran, so we have to look at all these theatres in conjunction and that will be our focus,” he said.
European NATO members are also expecting clear messages or a roadmap from Rubio regarding the US withdrawal of troops from Europe, where around 100,000 American soldiers are stationed. However, the US secretary of state has not yet addressed the issue, and Rutte indicated that no immediate drawdown is planned.
“There are no plans for them (the US) to all of a sudden draw down their presence here in Europe, but we know that for America being the superpower they are they have to attend to more theatres than one,” Rutte said.
Some NATO members consider that the US could reduce its presence by some 20,000 to 50,000 troops.
The NATO secretary general acknowledged that the US has long sought to pivot its attention toward the Indo-Pacific but assured that it will be done “in a very coordinated manner.”
