{"id":2599,"date":"2026-06-18T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/2599\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:18:09","slug":"natos-rutte-refuses-to-criticise-us-over-hegseth-attack-on-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/2599\/","title":{"rendered":"Nato\u2019s Rutte refuses to criticise US over Hegseth attack on allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nato<\/a> secretary general Mark Rutte<\/a> has refused to criticise Pete Hegseth<\/a> in the wake of the US<\/a> defence secretary lashing out at<\/a> partners in the alliance. <\/p>\n

Mr Rutte was pushed to address Mr Hegseth\u2019s comments on Nato being a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d and on his suggestion that the US could pay less, if other allies don\u2019t meet their targets. <\/p>\n

He avoided criticising Mr Hegseth in his response, instead saying: \u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on every word every ally is saying; I never do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NATONATO Secretary General Mark Rutte holds a press conference on the sidelines of a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the NATO headquarters, in Brussels, on June 18, 2026. (Photo by JOHN THYS \/ AFP via Getty Images) (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Mr Rutte also said that member nations \u201care working very hard\u201d to meet targets. He said that the Nato spending increases pledged by member states are \u201chistoric,\u201d but there are still some that are \u201cholding back a little bit\u201d. <\/p>\n

He added that Mr Hegseth is right to \u201ckeep the pressure on.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the meeting Mr Hegseth announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe that will depend on how fast European nations take responsibility for their own security.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe,\u201d he told his counterparts.<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth also blasted European allies for failing to provide US forces access to bases on the continent from where to launch strikes on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese allies, they put America\u2019s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Hegseth said that America\u2019s allies in Europe must take the lead on the defence of their own continent and help turn Nato into \u201ca read hard-line military alliance.\u201d He said he wants to reboot the organisation into Nato 3.0, capable of deterring any threat. <\/p>\n

\"USUS secretary of defence Pete Hegseth addresses the North Atlantic Council meeting of Defence Ministers during the Nato defence ministers (Getty)<\/p>\n

“Instead of tanks and fighters and air defences, the focus has been on gender equity and climate change and defence austerity. Europe’s borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defence budgets cratered. Along with Europe’s belief in itself and its civilisation,” Mr Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

Mr Rutte spoke of how Nato is undergoing a \u201dmassive transformation, probably the biggest transfomation in its history. Obviously that means also there are some rough waters, it is a rocky phase. You will have these debates, these discussions, and that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the US decision to review its troops presence and said there is a \u201cbroad agreement\u201d among allies to \u201cstep up as the US adjusts its pledges to the Nato Force Model.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nato chief also said the US \u201cexpressed strong commitment to Nato very clear today,\u201d while also expressing the need to achieve \u201ca more equitable distribution of labour\u201d in the alliance.<\/p>\n

Mr Rutte was challenged on this claim of commitment, as Mr Hegseth left the meeting early. He replied that he was there for nearly two hours, and listened to contributions from \u201cmany allies\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[155,2215,2220,962,2219,63,2216,66,7,2218,328,968,50,969,2217],"class_list":["post-2599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-belgium","tag-brussels-capital-region","tag-capital-region","tag-color-image","tag-headquarters","tag-horizontal","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-north-atlantic-council","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}