Rubio calls US NATO allies ‘a bunch of junior partners’

The US secretary of state has urged member countries to increase defense spending

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has renewed pressure on NATO members to increase their defense contributions, describing the current arrangement within the military bloc as the US and “a bunch of junior partners.”

While being part of NATO is in the US’ interests, its members must shoulder their share of the responsibilities, otherwise it’s not really an alliance, but a “dependency,” he told The Free Press in an interview published on Wednesday.

Washington currently covers a significant portion of NATO’s budget, while several member nations continue to fall short of the bloc’s agreed-upon target of spending 2% of their GDP on defense. Rubio has argued that this imbalance weakens NATO’s credibility and cohesion.

“NATO is good as long as NATO is real, as long as it’s a real defense alliance, not the United States and a bunch of junior partners that aren’t doing their fair share,” the top US diplomat said. “It has to be a NATO in which your partners are carrying their weight.”

At his first meeting of NATO foreign affairs ministers earlier this month, Rubio reassured allies that US President Donald Trump is not anti-NATO and that the country will remain in the bloc, but he’s also asking his counterparts to make sacrifices and raise defense spending to 5%.

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The push aligns with recent comments from other senior US officials. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has said that Washington expects all members to at least meet the 2% threshold by the upcoming summit in June.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned European NATO countries this week that they must spend more on their militaries, because the US won’t guarantee European security alone.

“The time of the United States... being the sole guarantor of European security has passed. It’s long overdue, Europe has to step up, fund its military and lead. NATO needs to step up,” he said in a speech at the Army War College on Wednesday.

Defense spending has long been a point of contention within NATO. The June summit is expected to address this issue directly, with potential revisions to defense investment pledges on the agenda.