Rubio reassures allies on US commitment to NATO

BRUSSELS — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed America’s commitment to the NATO alliance Thursday, but underlined that his country wanted to hear a “realistic pathway” for allies to boost defense spending.

“The United States is in NATO,” Rubio said standing next to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. “[It] is as active in NATO as ever, and some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see … is unwarranted.”

Rubio is in Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, the final ministerial gathering before member country leaders meet in The Hague in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that defense spending rise to 5 percent of GDP from the current target of at least 2 percent; Rubio said Washington is not expecting to hit that in “one or two years,” but there needs to be a clear pathway to that goal.

However, Trump's comments about not defending NATO countries not spending enough on defense and his threats to invade Greenland have raised doubts about U.S. commitment to NATO and Europe's defense.

Despite that, Rubio made clear that Trump was not against NATO, but he was “against a NATO that does not have the capabilities” to fulfill the obligations of the treaty.

He added that while he understood that European leaders were aware of the risk of shifting spending away from social security, the full scale ground war in Ukraine is a reminder that “hard power is still necessary as a deterrent.”

“We also have domestic needs but we prioritize defense,” he said.