U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will on Wednesday become the first member of the new Trump administration to visit NATO, where the allies are keen to understand how America now plans to influence the course of the war in Ukraine.
He was not set to meet one on one with his Ukraine counterparts, but rather to be in a “listening mode” at the meeting, as well as at Thursday’s NATO defense ministerial, one U.S. official said.
Recently, Trump called for NATO members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, a level that no member has reached so far — not even Poland, which is the closest, spending over 4% and expected to approach 5% this year.
A senior NATO diplomat said that “constructive dialogue with the new American administration would be the most important outcome” of the meeting, along with a U.S. commitment to do everything we can to keep Ukraine in the fight.”.
European allies have hiked their military budgets since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, and 23 are estimated to have reached or exceeded last year the target of spending 2% of GDP.
