The US Secretary of Defense urges his French counterpart to increase military spending

US Defense Secretary Beit Higseth, his French counterpart Sebastian Lucurno, called for “increasing military spending” and with other countries in NATO, “the main responsibility for the traditional defense of Europe,” according to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the US Secretary of Defense and the French Armed Forces Minister who is visiting Washington “also discussed the priorities related to this file, including attempts to achieve permanent peace in Ukraine.”
During his first official visit to Europe in February, Higseth sent the same message to the United States’ allies on the continent.

American retreat

“It is time for investment because you cannot assume that the American presence will continue forever,” he said during a visit to Poland.
Lucurno’s visit to Washington coincides with talks on the war in Ukraine, by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Whitch, Donald Trump’s special envoy in Paris.
The American President demands all NATO member states to allocate at least 5% of their gross domestic product for the defense field, which is an ambitious goal for many of them.
The United States allocates 3.4% of its gross domestic product, while most European countries allocate about 2%.