Pete Hegseth Warns NATO Partners Europe Must Raise Spending to 5% of GDP

The Pentagon’s new national defense strategy, unveiled on Friday, January 23, is being scrutinized in Asia and Europe as much as in the United States, with the U.S. Department of Defense adopting a conciliatory tone toward Beijing and emphasizing American predominance in the Western Hemisphere as a priority.

“The Pentagon's new national defense strategy is being scrutinized in Asia and Europe as much as in the United States”

Courrier international

Courrier international says the document indicates that the long-term objectives of the Trump administration are to reduce the role of the U.S. military in Europe, on the Korean Peninsula, and in the Middle East, a shift the BBC frames as a move toward more limited support for European allies.

Courrier international

El Mundo reports that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore to reserve his harshest criticisms for Europe, telling NATO partners that “Europe should take note.”

El Mundo adds that Hegseth warned allies who do not contribute sufficiently to collective defense will face “a radical shift” in their relationship with Washington, while noting NATO members face pressure from the Trump Administration to raise military spending to 5% of GDP.

In the same El Mundo account, Hegseth highlighted Japan and South Korea for increasing their military budgets and presented Asia as the model Washington wants Europe to replicate, including through accelerated arms sales, deeper industrial cooperation, and greater intelligence sharing.

El Mundo says Hegseth avoided clarifying whether the White House would proceed with a weapons sales package valued at $14 billion for Taiwan, simply noting that any decision will depend directly on Trump and the state of relations with Beijing, which he called the “best in many years.”

In that same speech, El Mundo reports Taiwan disappeared completely from Hegseth’s main remarks, and he used restrained language, saying, “We do not confront this challenge with unnecessary confrontation, but with a posture of measured and deliberate strength.”

El Mundo

The IFRI briefing frames the return of Donald Trump to the White House as reviving uncertainty about the United States’ security commitment to Taiwan, contrasting Trump’s avoidance of commenting on potential American response in a crisis in the Taiwan Strait with President Joe Biden’s repeated reaffirmations.

IFRI says the only comments from Trump were limited to stating that “China does not want to do that [i.e., invade Taiwan],” and to citing Xi Jinping during a phone call, including “He told me: I will never do it as long as you are president.”

Courrier international similarly describes the Pentagon strategy as adopting a conciliatory tone toward Beijing, while the BBC is said to have noted that previous American national defense strategies had treated the threat posed by China in several domains as an absolute defense priority.

El Mundo reports that Hegseth warned allies who do not contribute sufficiently to collective defense will face “a radical shift,” as NATO members confront growing pressure from the Trump Administration to raise military spending to 5% of GDP.

“Analyses / Asia-Pacific”

IRIS

Courrier international says the Pentagon strategy’s emphasis on American priorities in the Western Hemisphere is expected to provoke reaction from European media, with the BBC describing a significant shift in U.S. security priorities and urging European allies to take their own defense into their own hands.

IRIS links U.S. interventionism to an asymmetrical security dependence for Japan and South Korea, arguing that their territories are treated as reservoirs of forces and equipment subject to preemption rights as needed.

IRIS adds that South Korea feels particularly vulnerable facing North Korea because it has been stripped of its missile defense capabilities (Patriot missiles and THAAD systems) by the United States to transfer them to the Middle East, while Japan and South Korea have significantly increased their military budgets.

El Mundo concludes that the Shangri-La Dialogue has consolidated as the main showcase of Asian security, where the U.S. and China publicly expose their strategic positions, and notes that for the second year in a row Beijing decided not to send its defense minister.