Clear confession
US Secretary of State Rubio: “We will stay in NATO”
03.04.2025 – 9:52 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
There is uncertainty for Trump’s tariffs worldwide. At the meeting of the NATO essemin Minister, the US representative tunes more conciliatory tones.
Against the background of growing tensions between the USA and its European allies, US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio has given a clear commitment to his country to NATO. “We will stay in NATO,” said Rubio at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday. At the same time, he called for NATO members to increase their military spending to five percent of the respective gross domestic product (GDP)-and included his own country.
Rubio’s first appearance on the NATO stage was eagerly awaited. US President Donald Trump had repeatedly questioned the assistance obligation within NATO in recent months and asked NATO partners to increase their defense budget to five percent of the respective GDP.
The speeches from Washington in NATO diplomats in Brussels fear that the United States could at least partially withdraw from NATO. The import tariffs imposed by Washington on goods from Europe and Canada, among other things, also caused upset with NATO partners in the run-up to the meeting.
The US foreign minister, however, rejected the doubts about the United States’ loyalty to the alliance on Thursday. US President Trump “made it clear that he was supporting NATO,” said Rubio. According to him, the United States in NATO is even “more active than ever”. The “hysteria and exaggeration”, which he saw in international and some US media, are not justified.
NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte also rejected fears regarding an early withdrawal from US troops from Europe. “There are no plans that they suddenly reduce their presence here in Europe,” said Rutte in Brussels. However, there is expectation in Washington that Europeans and Canada would have to spend significantly more for their defense.
In the preparation of the NATO summit in June, the two-day meeting of the Foreign Minister is to be discussed on the future of the transatlantic alliance, in particular a further increase in defense spending.
Foreign Minister Rubio said: “In the knowledge, we want to leave that we are on the right track, a realistic path on which each member is committed and promises to reach five percent when spending.” For the first time, he also included the USA with this objective. Washington also has to increase its share, emphasized Rubio. In terms of time frame, the US foreign minister also stuck a conciliatory tone: “Nobody expects you to do this within a year or two. But the way must be realistic.”
A number of NATO countries, including Germany, have already announced a significant increase in their defense budget. It is the “probably greatest increase in defense spending” in Europe since the end of the Cold War, said Rutte.
The beginning of the meeting was overlaid by the import tariffs imposed on Wednesday by Washington. In this context, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) illustrated the importance of economic security for defense ability. Economic security is “part of our all security as a whole,” she emphasized in Brussels.
Another topic of the meeting was the situation in Ukraine and the negotiations on a ceasefire that Washington is currently leading with Moscow and Kiev. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha confirmed his country’s commitment to the United States’ proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. He asked the allied Kiev to increase the pressure on Moscow in order to make the Russian side “serious with peace”. “We must not forget that an actual, full war takes place in Europe,” he emphasized. The meeting of NATO foreign ministers will continue on Friday.
