Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said NATO nations must provide a “realistic pathway” to ramp up their defense spending to hit a 5% threshold – including the U.S.

“I understand there’s domestic politics, after decades of building up vast social safety nets that maybe don’t want to take away from that and invest more in national security,” Rubio said while speaking at a NATO foreign ministers event in Brussels. “But the events of the last few years… full-scale ground war in the heart of Europe as a reminder that hard power is still necessary as a deterrent.

“We do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway, a realistic pathway to every single one of the members committee, and fulfilling a promise to reach up to 5% of spending,” Rubio said, adding that “the United States will have to increase its percentage.”

NATO’s largest annual maritime drill, Exercise Dynamic Mariner/Flotex 25, continues in the Gulf of Cadiz off southern Spain on March 28, 2025. (Burak Akbulut/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Rubio did not detail what timeframe he expected to see nations increase their defense spending to hit the 5% threshold, though if the U.S. did it in 2025, that would mean allocating nearly $1.49 trillion for defense – a figure that is higher than the current total spent by the entire NATO alliance, which collectively spent $1.47 trillion in 2024.

“As we speak right now, the United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been,” Rubio said. “Some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted. 

“The United States president [has] made clear. He supports NATO. We’re going to remain in NATO,” he reaffirmed. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio greets the press as he walks with the newly appointed U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker on the first day of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on April 3, 2025, in Brussels, Belgium.  (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

Rubio said the only way NATO nations can truly deter aggressor nations like Russia and China is by collectively increasing each NATO nation’s capabilities to contribute to the alliance’s collective defense. 

“We understand that’s a tradeoff,” Rubio said. “We have to do it every single year in our country – I assure you that we also have domestic needs.

“But we’ve prioritized defense because of the role we’ve played in the world, and we want our partners to do the same,” Rubio confirmed.