US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took another swipe at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and America’s European partners at the Singapore Global Defense Forum, while heaping praise on countries in the Asian region, mainly the Philippines, for not “freeloading” on the United States.
Hegseth said those who do not hike their defense spending sufficiently “will face a clear shift in how we do business.”
NATO members pledged last year to ramp up their defense spending to five percent of their gross domestic product, but despite increased efforts many states said they may not be able to reach that target.
The US push for higher shares by NATO members is seen as intended to reduce its own spending to maintain global security while raising the potential for arms sales.
At the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier annual security summit, Hegseth urged the US allies to ramp up their military spending to counter China’s growing power, warning of “rightful alarm” over its rapid military buildup.
The dialogue brought together defense ministers, military chiefs and diplomats from across the region.
Hegseth declared that “the era of the United States subsidizing the defense of wealthy nations is over,” underscoring that the alliance requires mutual burden-sharing.
“We need partners, not protectorates,” he said.
He singled out countries he felt were doing their part. He praised the contributions of the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and noted that Japan was taking concrete steps to bolster its defenses.
Tokyo and Washington, he said, “must each pull our weight to strengthen the US-Japan alliance.”
“You don’t have a strong alliance unless everyone has skin in the game. No freeloading,” Hegseth said.
Two percent not enough
The “no freeloading” line was a pointed barb toward other countries.
When a New Zealand delegate asked if his country’s plan to increase its defense spending from one percent to two percent of GDP would be considered “freeloading,” Hegseth said bluntly: “If I’m being honest, two percent is not enough, and so two percent is freeloading.”
The broader context was a strong push, consistent with the Trump administration’s foreign policy, for allies to spend more on their own defense rather than rely on US military guarantees.
“For too long, polite pleas from our European allies to spend more on their own defense fell on deaf ears,” Hegseth said.
“They are finally playing catch-up,” he added.
“Allies who refuse to step up and carry their own weight for our collective defense will face a clear shift in how we do business,” he warned.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this month NATO was facing US troop cuts in Europe as Washington focused on other threats and European nations ramped up their defenses.
Hegseth reiterated that Europe’s security had “rested disproportionately on American military power, while many of our allies and partners allowed their own defense capabilities to atrophy.”
S. Korea on frontlines
In the Asia-Pacific region many countries were indeed stepping up, Hegseth said, using South Korea as an example.
“South Korea has invested consistently in its own defense because it does not have the luxury of treating war like an academic exercise. They live on the frontlines, and so they build real combat power,” he said.
This “simply reflects a clear-eyed understanding of the threat environment,” he added.
