Pentagon Chief: We'll have straight talk with our friends at Ramstain meeting, NATO ministerial

19:16, 11.02.2025 1 min read

At the upcoming Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein format and NATO ministerial in Brussels, capabilities, leadership, and burden sharing will be discussed, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has said.

"Tomorrow, at the Ukraine Contact Group and the NATO ministerial, we're going to have straight talk with our friends. This urgency at this moment requires friends talking to friends. About capabilities, about leadership, about stepping up, about burden sharing," he told reporters at the U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany.

Hegseth also emphasized that he hopes for a swift achievement of peace in Ukraine, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump is striving for this.

"The European continent deserves to be free from any aggression. But it ought to be those in the neighborhood investing the most in that individual and collective defense," he said.

The Pentagon chief also said the NATO allies should spend 5% of GDP on defense.

When asked whether China was the biggest threat for the United States, he said that "the biggest threat was securing our own border."