Published 08.13
When NATO’s defense ministers meet in Brussels, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is there.
– NATO must return to being a real and tough military alliance, with real capacity to face threats and defend Europe, says Hegseth at the beginning of the meeting.
At the beginning of last year, Hegseth had some harsh words to say about NATO’s capabilities and the defense budgets of Canada and the European NATO countries. But, assures NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Hegseth is a great friend of NATO.
– But he has said that the US has expectations of NATO and has made it clear that European countries and Canada must set their defense budgets so that they correspond to the US’s, says Rutte.
Both Rutte and Hegseth talk about a NATO 3.0, a NATO that can and wants and is capable of more when it comes to facing military threats. A step on the way was the decision at last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, where the alliance agreed to aim for the equivalent of 5 percent of GDP for defense.
One of the points at the meeting in Brussels, and at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey in July, is to agree on how the NATO countries are on the way to 5 percent on military defense and total defense. The goal must be reached in 2035.
According to Mark Rutte, Europe is on the right track, he highlights a 20 percent increase in defense budgets last year and that a country like Germany is doubling its defense budget.
