U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth used the term ‘NATO 3.0’ to describe his plan to “ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading” continental security.
He told a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels that certain unnamed allies were “free-riding” by not paying their fair share of supporting the organisation.
The announcement follows a U.S. decision to scale back its commitments to the ‘high readiness’ force within the alliance known as the Nato Force Model (NFM). This adds to the pressure on member states to contribute more to European defence spending, with some countries yet to demonstrate how they will reach an agreed target of 5% of gross domestic product on defence (3.5% on core defence and 1.5% on related infrastructure).
In contrast, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte pointed out how defence spending had already gone up €90bn last year, a rise of almost 20%.
