Raise defence spending or else, Hegseth tells NATO, Europe

SINGAPORE, May 31 (AFP): US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took another swipe at Washington's NATO and European partners on Saturday, saying those that do not hike defence spending sufficiently "will face a clear shift in how we do business".

NATO members pledged last year to ramp up defence-related spending to five percent of GDP but, despite increased efforts, many states say they may not be able to reach that target.

"For too long, polite pleas from our European allies to spend more on their own defence fell on deaf ears," the Pentagon chief said at a defence summit in Singapore.

"They are finally playing catch-up," Hegseth said in a speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue conference.

"Allies who refuse to step up and carry their own weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this month NATO was facing US troop cuts in Europe as Washington focused on other threats and European nations ramped up their defences.

In Asia, Hegseth reiterated that the region's security had "rested disproportionately on American military power, while many of our allies and partners allowed their own defence capabilities to atrophy".

Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region were indeed stepping up, Hegseth said, using South Korea as a particular example.

"South Korea has invested consistently in its own defence, because it does not have the luxury of treating war like an academic exercise.