US defense secretary welcomes NATO chief to Pentagon

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US defense chief Pete Hegseth welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to Washington, DC on Thursday.

Hegseth held a honor cordon for Rutte at the Pentagon. No information was disclosed about the closed-door meeting.

Rutte thanked Hegseth for the "warm welcome and the good discussion on how to ensure a stronger, fairer, more lethal NATO."

"Europe and Canada are ramping up defence spending and we’re all working to increase production capacity," Rutte wrote on X.

The US has been urging its NATO allies to raise defense spending to 5% of their respective GDPs.

Rutte is in Washington to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.