Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, center, participates in physical training with the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), a U.S. Army Special Forces battalion based in Stuttgart, Germany. (DefSec Hegseth on X)
The U.S. defense secretary called on Europe to "take ownership of conventional security on the continent."
"European allies must lead from the front," he went on. "Together, we can establish a division of labor that maximize our comparative advantages in Europe and Pacific, respectively."
Hegseth said on Tuesday the U.S. has no active plans to draw down forces in Europe but remains committed to analyzing U.S. troop postures across the globe. Speaking at U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, he said the U.S. is committed to having a presence in Europe while emphasizing the continent should not rely on that presence for security.
UKRAINE REGAINING PRE-2014 BORDERS IS ‘UNREALISTIC OBJECTIVE,’ HEGSETH SAYS IN FIRST NATO VISIT
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, UK Defense Secretary John Healey, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov attend a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. (REUTERS/Johanna Geron)
Hegseth also said that any European peacekeeping forces sent to help Ukraine win the war against Russia must not be from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and would not be protected under Article 5, a provision that states an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all.
The defense secretary said the U.S. does not believe allowing Ukraine into NATO is a "realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement."
Hegseth also called on NATO countries to step up after Trump recently called on them to boost defense spending to 5%.
"The United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency."
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Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy suggested that security guarantees for Ukraine without the U.S. are "not real security guarantees."
"There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no," he told The Guardian. "Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-warns-europeans-realities-china-border-threats-prevent-us-from-guaranteeing-security