NATO chief seeks in Washington increasing defense spending

WASHINGTON, April 25 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met late Thursday with U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, discussing ways of increasing defense spending.
"Thanks very much to Donald Trump for the warm welcome back to the White House. Great meeting with the President, along with his team Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth and NSA Mike Waltz," Rutte said in an X post.
"We're working together to ensure that NATO continues to deliver strength and security," he added.
In a separate post, the NATO chief said: "Great to see Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon this morning. Thanks for the warm welcome and the good discussion on how to ensure a stronger, fairer, more lethal NATO." "Europe and Canada are ramping up defense spending and we're all working to increase production capacity," he noted. (end) asj.mt