The American administration believes that the North Atlantic Alliance should be a genuine defensive alliance, not a pact between the United States and "a handful of junior partners," stated U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an interview with The Free Press.

"NATO is good as long as it is a genuine defensive alliance, not the United States and a handful of junior partners who are not pulling their weight," he said.

"I think alliances are always good. The opportunity to enter into a defensive alliance with advanced economies and advanced militaries is a force multiplier for the United States. So, NATO is definitely in our interest," Rubio said.

"The question is, what kind of NATO are we talking about? It must be a NATO where partners carry their weight. And when you see a NATO where countries are spending one percent of their GDP, then it is really not an alliance, but a dependency."

Previously, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz stated that the U.S. administration is demanding that all NATO allies reduce military spending to two percent of GDP by the next NATO summit, which is scheduled for June of this year, as stipulated in the agreements. Since taking office as President of the United States, Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he intends to ensure that NATO member states in Europe increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP. According to the Financial Times, during the June NATO summit, representatives of the alliance countries are likely to agree to increase military budgets to more than three percent of GDP.

Tass/gnews.cz