‘This Is About Capability’: Sec. Marco Rubio Calls On NATO Allies To Increase Defense Spending

22 hours ago

During a press conference at NATO headquarters on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about increasing NATO’s defense spending target.

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Transcript

00:00Hi.

00:01Sorry, I'm back here.

00:02Your last name's Reuters?

00:03It's pretty cool, isn't it?

00:04Go ahead.

00:05On the 5% defense spending target, have you received pushback to this idea while you've

00:06been here this week?

00:07And you mentioned yesterday up to 5% was your language.

00:08What do you mean by up to 5%?

00:09Well, I said up to a path of getting up to 5% at some point.

00:10I'm not saying overnight, but to get to that point.

00:11We think that's what NATO allies need to be spending for NATO to face the threats that

00:12we're facing.

00:13I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:14I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:15I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:16I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:17I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:18I think that's what we need to be doing.

00:43are good but they need to continue, but this is not about spending, this is not about money

00:47necessarily, this is about capability. In order for NATO to be stronger, it needs partners

00:52that are stronger. The United States commits a lot to NATO and continues to. We are as

00:56involved in NATO today as we have ever been and we intend to continue to be, but it has

01:01to be a real alliance and that means that our alliance partners have to increase their

01:04own capabilities. So hopefully two things have led to that. The first is the war in

01:08Ukraine I think has woken up a lot of people on the continent about real threats and real

01:13war and the other is I think the pressure and the statements of President Trump that

01:17have been pretty consistent about increasing their spending. So this whole trajectory of

01:21more defense spending began I believe back in 2017, 2018 under President Trump's first

01:27term. We want that trend to continue and we are hoping when the leaders meet in The Hague

01:32that there will be further and firmer commitments in that direction. I think it's beneficial

01:36to the alliance. The stronger our partners in NATO are, the more capable our partners

01:41in NATO are, the stronger NATO is and everybody should be in favor of that.

01:45And sorry, just to follow up, so will you try and get the official target as 5% rather

01:50than 2% and will the U.S. commit to 5%?

01:52Sure, we're heading there now. We're going to have to spend more on national security

01:55because we have a global footprint and that's the point that I think has been made and missed

01:59in a lot of places. The United States has Indo-Pacific alliance obligations as well

02:05that we've made. We are currently involved in opening up the Red Sea so that global shipping

02:09for everyone, including our European partners, can become possible again. We're engaged in

02:14counter-drug and counter-gang interdictions in the Western Hemisphere. There's obviously

02:18all sorts of issues going on in different parts of the world, including we're concerned

02:22about a resurgence of terrorist cells, whether it's in Africa or in the Middle East. So the

02:27U.S. has these global obligations and we have China that's undergoing the largest, most

02:32expansive peacetime military expansion in history. So we need to confront all of these

02:38things and we're engaged in all of those things. So we're going to have to increase the spending

02:42in our country. I think our commitment to NATO isn't just three and something percent

02:47spending of GDP, it's sustained over an extraordinary period of time and that continues. So look,

02:53I think our partners know they need to do more. They've all indicated they want to do

02:57more. They've begun to do more and that trend needs to continue.

‘This Is About Capability’: Sec. Marco Rubio Calls On NATO Allies To Increase Defense Spending

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