Pentagon chief Hegseth: US can no longer serve as guarantor of Europe’s security

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Photo: Reuters

Pete Hegseth reiterated that the US will ask its NATO allies in Europe to increase their military spending to 5% of their GDP. The United States can no longer serve as the guarantor of Europe's security, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.

"The time of the United States, the sole guarantor of European security, has passed," he said, speaking at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, TASS quotes.

At the same time, he reiterated that the US will ask its NATO allies in Europe to increase their military spending to 5% of their GDP. "2% is not enough, considering the threats you face," Hegseth emphasized. Current US President Donald Trump has stated several times in recent months his intention to push NATO member states to increase defense spending to 5% of their GDP. Alliance countries agreed to up military spending to 2% of GDP at their summit in Wales in September 2014, citing the so-called "Russian threat" as the main reason following Crimea's reunification with Russia. In July 2023, at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, members decided that 2% of GDP should not be the target, but the minimum level of defense spending for NATO countries.

Earlier, NBC reported, citing US and European officials, that the Pentagon is considering withdrawing up to 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe. According to their information, this is about half of the group of 20,000 people sent by the previous US administration to the countries bordering Ukraine in 2022.

Speaking in February in Brussels at a regular meeting of the Western contact group responsible for coordinating arms deliveries to Kiev, Hegseth emphasized that a return to Ukraine's 2014 borders was unrealistic.

He also effectively ruled out the possibility of Ukraine's admission to NATO, warning Europe that it should be responsible for its own security, echoing the sentiments of Trump himself and other administration officials. In addition, the US defense official said that the Trump administration does not foresee the US withdrawing from NATO, but will not tolerate a situation where Europe is essentially dependent on Washington.

Then, on April 9, Hegseth specified that the United States has not yet made a decision as to further US troop levels in Europe, noting that how negotiations between Moscow and Washington turn out will be a large determining factor.

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