Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be pushing NATO members "very hard" to reach the group's goal of 2 percent defense spending during next week's meeting in Brussels, The Hill reports.
A State Department official, speaking to reporters in the background, said Tillerson "will be pushing President [Donald] Trump's agenda ... to get the allies to renew their commitment through increased resources for NATO's defense spending," according to The Hill.
The official said it is "essential" for allies to honor a deal made in 2014 to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. And 20 percent of that amount must be spent on military equipment and capabilities.
The timeline agreed on for meeting the goal is 2024, but the official did not say what would happen if NATO members don't meet it.
Currently, only the United States and four other NATO countries spend 2 percent on defense. NATO has 28 members.
"President Trump, Secretary Tillerson and [Defense] Secretary [James] Mattis, Vice President [Mike] Pence are all pushing allies to do more faster," the official said. "Absolutely no apology for that. They will be doing that quite openly."
Tillerson also plans to push allies for a bigger role in fighting terrorism and will discuss members' "shared commitment to improve the security situation in Eastern Ukraine, and the need for NATO to continue to push Russia to end its aggression against its neighbors, and to fulfill the Minsk commitments with regard to Ukraine."
Trump was a frequent critic of NATO during the campaign, saying the United States was being stuck with most of the bill for defending its European allies. He has said the group is obsolete, and that European members need to pay up.
Tillerson initially planned to skip the upcoming meeting until it was rescheduled.
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