Hegseth, during his first trip to NATO and Ukraine Defense Contact Group, stated that US support for Ukraine's NATO membership is unrealistic and advocated for a negotiated settlement with Russia, potentially backed by an international peacekeeping force.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and in sweeping remarks suggested that the way forward for Ukraine was for the country to abandon hopes of a return to its pre-2014 borders and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia - one that should be backed up with an international force of troops.
"Members of this contact group must meet the moment," Hegseth said to the assembled group pf approximately 50 member countries who have been providing support to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.BRUSSELS - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday made the first trip to NATO by a member of the new Trump administration, as the allies wait to learn how much military and financial support Washington intends to provide to Ukraine's government.
His trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Most U.S. allies fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't stop at Ukraine's borders if he wins, and that Europe's biggest land war in decades poses an existential threat to their security.
Washington's 31 NATO allies also want to hear what Trump's new administration has in store for the world's biggest security organization. Trump traumatized his European partners during his first term in office by threatening not to defend any member that doesn't meet NATO guidelines for military spending.
However, a third of members still haven't reached that threshold, and Trump is almost certain to target them again. Recently, Trump called for NATO members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, a level that no member has reached so far - not even Poland, which is the closest, spending more than 4% and expected to approach 5% this year.
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