Hegseth rules out U.S. troops, NATO membership for Ukraine, as America pivots to China threat 

In his first foray into Europe as the U.S. defense chief, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told a gathering of European defense ministers that European nations need to increase defense spending and provide significant aid to Ukraine. 

He emphasized the importance of ending the war in Ukraine through diplomacy with Russia, as the U.S. shifts its focus to the threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world. 

“Our message is clear: the bloodshed must stop, and this war must end,” Hegseth said about the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine. “President Trump has been clear with the American people and with many of your leaders that stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a top priority.” 

Later on Wednesday, Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin peace negotiations, the AP reported. 

Hegseth said while Ukraine won’t achieve its goal of securing its pre-2014 borders, a lasting peace must include “robust” security guarantees for Ukraine that the fighting wouldn’t begin again. 

“That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” added Hegseth. “Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.” 

Hegseth also vowed that U.S .troops “will not be … deployed to Ukraine.” 

He asked Europe to provide the majority of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine and called for European countries to be honest with their citizens about the threat and the need to spend more on defense. 

The NATO transatlantic alliance has endured for decades, and he said he fully expects that it will endure. But he added an important caveat. 

“It will require our European allies to step into the arena and take ownership of conventional security on the continent,” said Hegseth. “The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe, full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency. Rather our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.”  

Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defense, and the U.S. for its own, Hegseth believes. 

“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland,” he said. “We must and we are focusing on security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific.”  

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Stuttgart, Hegseth made similar comments about the threat from China.  

When asked if the U.S. would be pulling troops from Europe to focus on the threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region, he said that while there were no plans to move troops, the country is constantly reviewing its defense posture. 

“America, as the leader of the free world, defending American interests is going to need to make sure we’re focused properly on the Communist Chinese and their ambitions in the Indo-Pacific, and, as I mentioned before, around the world,” he said. 

When asked if China posed the “biggest threat” to the U.S., he was equally frank.  

“There’s just no doubt the Communist Chinese ambitions are robust,” Hegseth said. “Their view of the world is quite different than ours, and whoever carries that mantle is going to set the tone for the 21st century.” 

The NATO meeting of member defense ministers in Brussels was convened to address defense spending, industrial capacity and support of Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia. 

“Additionally, the meeting will tackle Russia’s destabilizing actions against NATO Allies, including sabotage, assassination attempts, and attacks on critical infrastructure,” said NATO in a statement about the meeting. 

The U.K. was the official host for the meeting of NATO’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was started by Hegseth’s predecessor, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who served under former President Joe Biden. 

The group has met at least 25 times, but this is the first meeting that included Hegseth.