Pentagon chief confident NATO will commit to Trump's defence spending target
British Defence Secretary John Healey speaks during a joint news conference with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (both not pictured), after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, as a part of a NATO Defence Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
British Defence Secretary John Healey, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius speak after a news conference, following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, as a part of a NATO Defence Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a press conference on the eve of a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
British Defence Secretary John Healey, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius hold a news conference after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, as a part of a NATO Defence Ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
BRUSSELS - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday he was confident that members of the NATO alliance will sign up to Donald Trump's demand for a major boost in defence spending, adding that it had to happen by a summit later in June.
The U.S. president has said NATO allies should boost investment in defence to 5% of gross domestic product, up from the current target of 2%.
"To be an alliance, you got to be more than flags. You got to be formations. You got to be more than conferences. You need to be, keep combat ready capabilities," Hegseth said as he arrived at a gathering of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
"We're here to continue the work that President Trump started, which is a commitment to 5% defence spending across this alliance, which we think will happen," Hegseth said, adding: "It has to happen by the summit at The Hague later this month."
Diplomats have said European allies understand that hiking defence expenditure is the price of ensuring a continued U.S. commitment to the continent's security and that keeping the U.S. on board means allowing Trump to be able to declare a win on his 5% demand during the summit, scheduled for June 24-25.
"We have to go further and we have to go faster," NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters on Wednesday.
"A new defence investment plan will be at the heart of the NATO summit in The Hague," he added.
In a bid to meet Trump's 5% goal, Rutte has proposed alliance members boost defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to broader security-related spending, Reuters has reported.
Details of the new investment plan will likely continue to be negotiated until the eve of the NATO summit.
"We have to find a realistic compromise between what is necessary and what is possible really to spend," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday.
Countries remain divided over the timeline for a new pledge.
Rutte has proposed reaching the 5% by 2032 – a date that some eastern European states consider too distant but which some others see as too early and unrealistic given current spending and industrial production levels.
A 2032 target is "definitely too late", Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said on Wednesday, arguing for a target of 2030 at the latest.
There is also an ongoing debate over how to define "defence-related" spending, which might include spending on cybersecurity and certain types of infrastructure.
"The aim is to find a definition that is precise enough to cover only real security-related investments, and at the same time broad enough to allow for national specifics," said one NATO diplomat. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
41 minutes ago
- Straits Times
What are the main US military bases in the Middle East?
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to U.S. troops, next to a banner reading, \"Peace Through Strength\", during a visit to Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo What are the main US military bases in the Middle East? U.S. forces have struck Iran's key nuclear sites, drawing threats from Tehran to retaliate, with U.S. military installations in the region a potential target. Following are significant U.S. facilities in the Middle East: BAHRAIN: Home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, whose area of responsibility includes the Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. QATAR: The 24-hectare Al Udeid Air Base, in the desert outside the capital Doha, is the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command, which directs U.S. military operations in a huge swathe of territory stretching from Egypt in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. The Middle East's largest U.S. base houses around 10,000 troops. KUWAIT: Several sprawling military installations include Camp Arifjan, the forward headquarters of U.S. Army Central and the Ali Al Salem Air Base, roughly 40 kilometers from the Iraqi border and known as "The Rock" for its isolated, rugged environment. Camp Buehring was established during the 2003 Iraq War and is a staging post for U.S. Army units deploying into Iraq and Syria, according to the U.S. Army website. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The Al Dhafra Air Base, situated south of UAE capital Abu Dhabi and shared with the UAE Air Force, is a critical U.S. Air Force hub that has supported key missions against the Islamic State, as well as reconnaissance deployments across the region, according to the U.S. Air Force Central Command. Dubai's Jebel Ali Port, while not a formal military base, is the U.S. Navy's largest port of call in the Middle East that regularly hosts U.S. aircraft carriers and other vessels. IRAQ: The U.S. maintains a presence at Ain Al Asad Air Base in western Anbar province, supporting Iraqi security forces and contributing to the NATO mission, according to the White House. Iranian missile strikes targeted the base in 2020, in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Situated in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, Erbil Air Base serves as a hub for U.S. and coalition forces conducting training exercises and battle drills. The base supports U.S. military efforts by providing a secure location for training, intelligence sharing, and logistical coordination in northern Iraq, according to the congressional report. SAUDI ARABIA: U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia -- which numbered 2,321 in 2024 according to a White House letter -- operate in coordination with the Saudi government, providing air and missile defense capabilities and support the operation of U.S. military aircraft. Some are stationed roughly 60 kilometres south of Riyadh, at Prince Sultan Air Base, which supports U.S. Army air defense assets including Patriot missile batteries and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems. JORDAN: Located in Azraq, 100 kilometres northeast of the capital Amman, the Muwaffaq al Salti Air Base hosts the U.S. Air Forces Central's 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, which engages in missions across the Levant, according to a 2024 report in the library of Congress. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
41 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Satellite images undermine Trump's claim that Iran's atomic sites were destroyed
Satellite image distributed by Maxar Technologies showing destroyed buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, before (left) after it was hit by US airstrikes. PHOTOS: REUTERS WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's decision to order US forces to attack three key Iranian nuclear installations may have sabotaged the Islamic Republic's known atomic capabilities, but it's also created a monumental new challenge to work out what's left and where. Mr Trump said heavily fortified sites were 'totally obliterated' late on June 21, but independent analysis has yet to verify that claim. Rather than yielding a quick win, the strikes have complicated the task of tracking uranium and ensuring Iran doesn't build a weapon, according to three people who follow the country's nuclear programme. International Atomic Energy Agency monitors remain in Iran and were inspecting more than one site a day before Israel started the bombing campaign on June 13. They are still trying to assess the extent of damage, and while military action might be able to destroy Iran's declared facilities, it also provides an incentive for Iran to take its program underground. Mr Trump dispatched B-2 stealth jets laden with Massive Ordnance Penetrators, known as GBU-57 bombs, to attempt to destroy Iran's underground uranium-enrichment sites in Natanz and Fordow. Satellite images taken on June 22 of Fordow and distributed by Maxar Technologies show new craters, possible collapsed tunnel entrances and holes on top of a mountain ridge. They also show that a large support building on the Fordow site, which operators may use to control ventilation for the underground enrichment halls, remained undamaged. There were no radiation releases from the site, the IAEA reported. New pictures of Natanz show a new crater about 5.5 metres in diametre. Maxar said in a statement that the new hole was visible in the dirt directly over a part of the underground enrichment facility. The image doesn't offer conclusive evidence that the attack breached the underground site, buried 40 metres under ground and reinforced with an 8-metre think concrete and steel shell. US Air Force General Dan Caine told a news conference earlier on June 22 that an assessment of 'final battle damage will take some time.' IAEA inspectors, meanwhile, haven't been able to verify the location of the Persian Gulf country's stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium for more than a week. Iranian officials acknowledged breaking IAEA seals and moving it to an undisclosed location. Indeed, there's just a slim possibility that the US entering the war will convince Iran to increase IAEA cooperation, said Ms Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. 'The more likely scenario is that they convince Iran that cooperation and transparency don't work and that building deeper facilities and ones not declared openly is more sensible to avoid similar targeting in future,' she said. The IAEA called on a cessation of hostilities in order to address the situation. Its 35-nation board will convene on June 23 in Vienna, Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. Before the US intervention, images showed Israeli forces alone had met with limited success four days after the bombing began. Damage to the central facility in Natanz, located 300km south of Tehran, was primarily limited to electricity switch yards and transformers. The US also joined in attacking the Isfahan Nuclear Technology and Research Centre, located 450km south of Tehran. That was after the IAEA re-assessed the level of damage Israel had dealt to facility. Based on satellite images and communications with Iranian counterparts Isfahan appeared 'extensively damaged,' the agency wrote late on June 21. The IAEA's central mission is to account for gram-levels of uranium around the world and to ensure it isn't used for nuclear weapons. The latest bombing now complicates tracking Iranian uranium even further, said Dr Tariq Rauf, the former head of the IAEA's nuclear-verification policy. 'It will now be very difficult for the IAEA to establish a material balance for the nearly 9,000 kilograms of enriched uranium, especially the nearly 410 kilograms of 60 per cent enriched uranium,' he said. Last week, inspectors had already acknowledged they'd lost track of the location of Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile because Israel's ongoing military assaults are preventing its inspectors from doing their work. That uranium inventory – enough to make 10 nuclear warheads at a clandestine location – was seen at Isfahan by IAEA inspectors. But the material, which could fit in as few as 16 small containers, may have already been spirited off site. 'Questions remain as to where Iran may be storing its already enriched stocks,' Ms Dolzikova said. 'These will have almost certainly been moved to hardened and undisclosed locations, out of the way of potential Israeli or US strikes.' Far from being just static points on a map, Iran's ambitions to make the fuel needed for nuclear power plants and weapons are embedded in a heavily fortified infrastructure nationwide. Thousands of scientists and engineers work at dozens of sites. Even as military analysts await new satellite images before determining the success of Mr Trump's mission, nuclear safeguards analysts have reached the conclusion that their work is about to become significantly harder. By bombing Iran's sites, Israel and the US haven't just disrupted the IAEA's accountancy of Iran's nuclear stockpile, they've also degraded the tools that monitors will be able to use, said Mr Robert Kelley, who led inspections of Iraq and Libya as an IAEA director. That includes the forensic method used to detect the potential diversion of uranium. 'Now that sites have been bombed and all classes of materials have been scattered everywhere the IAEA will never again be able to use environmental sampling,' he said. 'Particles of every isotopic description have infinite half-lives for forensic purposes and it will be impossible to sort out their origin.' BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Iran used drug traffickers to stoke trouble in France, says minister
FILE PHOTO: French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau speaks during an end-of-campaign rally for the presidency of the Les Republicains (LR) party in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, France, May 11, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo Iran used drug traffickers to stoke trouble in France, says minister PARIS - France has evidence that Iran has used intermediaries in the past to hire drug traffickers to carry out activities in France on its behalf and could do so again, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Sunday. France is on heightened alert following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities overnight. "Iran uses proxies that are often linked to drug traffickers. They get a contract and don't even know that the contract is linked to the Iranian regime," Retailleau told LCI television. "But that's the modality used by Iran on (our)national territory." Retailleau did not say what activities had been carried out in France and gave no specific evidence. Iran's embassy was not immediately available for comment. "It's very simple. These are contracts through intermediaries that don't link back to the regime," Retailleau said. Highlighting the heightened security threat, Retailleau also referred to a foiled plot in July 2018 to blow up an opposition rally near Paris where several Iranians were arrested after a joint Franco-German-Belgian operation. The plot was led by Vienna-based Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi and three others, according to court documents. Assadi, who French officials said was running an Iranian state intelligence network and was acting on orders from Tehran, was sentenced in Belgium to a 20-year prison term in 2021. He was exchanged in May 2023 for four Europeans held in Iran. Iran has repeatedly denied carrying out destabilising activities in Europe. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
