'Every Country Has To Contribute At That Level Of 5%': Pete Hegseth Attends NATO Event In Brussels

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a NATO Defense Ministers event in Brussels, Belgium.

Transcript

00:00Welcome Pete, Pete Hexat, here at NATO again.

00:04You were here in February, you were very clear about the agenda.

00:08You and President Trump are driving.

00:11We heard the message.

00:13Today will be an important meeting, because today we will agree on the capability targets

00:18we need going forward to keep one billion people safe in NATO territory.

00:23From this we will decide at the NATO summit to the spending, and we already know we need

00:29to spend much, much more if we want to fulfill all these targets.

00:34And by the way, by doing that we will also equalize in terms of spending between Canada

00:39and Europe and the United States.

00:41There has been a total commitment by the U.S. to NATO, but also this expectation that European

00:47and Canadian allies will step up spending, and I'm pretty confident we will get there

00:52at the summit.

00:53I also want to thank you and the President for what you were doing with Ukraine, driving

00:59the peace, engaging with President Putin, breaking the deadlock.

01:06And I think that is extremely important.

01:08And also today we will discuss Ukraine.

01:09So, Pete, thank you for being here.

01:12Thank you for your leadership.

01:14And thank you for being such a staunch ally.

01:15I want to thank the Secretary General for doing a fantastic job here.

01:22Not an easy place to lead.

01:23A lot of divergent perspectives.

01:26But everybody shares an understanding and a commitment to our collective defense.

01:33So well done.

01:34We appreciate you.

01:35Thank you for coming to visit the White House, for being a friend of the United States.

01:37I also want to thank our ambassador to NATO here, Matt Whitaker, who has done a phenomenal

01:43job representing President Trump here and American interests.

01:48But nobody has done more, I would argue.

01:50And if you just look in plain speak at the commitments and the budgets of NATO countries,

01:57then President Trump to restore NATO as an alliance.

02:00He did it in his first term, saying, you know, you can't freeload.

02:04You need to spend.

02:05You need to be a part of that commitment.

02:07European countries stepped up.

02:09Now we're seeing even more so with even higher targets that Ambassador Whitaker and the Secretary

02:15General have set.

02:16We're talking about capabilities today, and that's important.

02:19You've got to know what you're spending it on.

02:21And then that's going to be reflected.

02:23We believe, and the reason I'm here is to make sure every country in NATO understands

02:28every shoulder has to be to the plow.

02:31Every country has to contribute at that level of 5 percent as a recognition of the nature

02:38of the threat.

02:39It can't be about the flags that we love.

02:41It has to be about the formations that we have.

02:45It's that hard power that actually deters.

02:48And it can't just be U.S. capabilities.

02:52So the United States is proud to be here, to stand with our allies, but our message is

02:56going to continue to be clear.

02:59It's deterrence and peace through strength, but it can't be reliance.

03:03It cannot and will not be reliance on America in a world of a lot of threats, where America

03:08is poised to help take on those threats.

03:10I was just recently in the Indo-Pacific.

03:12We were very clear about those threats.

03:15We're prepared to step up.

03:17We need our allies to step up as well as we stand alongside them.

03:20So thank you for helping us have some of those hard conversations, those necessary conversations.

03:26And we're going to be talking to all of our allies, as the ambassador has been, that 5

03:30percent is where we need to be considering the threats we face in the world today.

03:35And we'll have that conversation robustly and constructively.

03:38So, Secretary General.

03:39Thank you so much.

03:40Appreciate it.

03:41Thank you so much.

03:42Absolutely.

03:43You got it.

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