US secretary of state: NATO's only threat are its members who have not invested in their armies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes NATO is not in danger. but that partners who do not allocate adequate military funding constitute a threat to the alliance.

"NATO is not in jeopardy. The only thing that puts NATO in jeopardy is the fact that we have NATO Allies who barely have militaries or whose militaries are not very capable because they’ve spent 40 years not spending any money on it. We’ve been NATO," Rubio said in an interview with Fox News.

Rubio added that his comment referred to wealthy countries especially in Western Europe which "have plenty of money" and "should be investing that in their national security, and they’re not".

"You have countries spending 1.5 percent, 1 percent of their economy, and we just can’t keep subsidising that. It’s not fair and it’s not sustainable," Rubio said.

"That’s what puts NATO in jeopardy is that we don’t have Allies in some cases. Now, others have done it. Poland, Czechia – there’s a bunch of countries that have done it, but some have not. And these are rich countries – Germany, France. We know this. So that has to be fixed," Rubio added. 

On 25 February, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the largest increase in defence spending since the Cold War and plans to reach 2.5% of GDP by 2027.

He also said that he favoured a further increase in defence spending to 3% of GDP.

Recently, US President Donald Trump said that he plans to ask NATO to spend 5% of GDP on defence instead of the current 2%.