Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that Donald Trump’s administration has no intention of leaving NATO even as the U.S. envoy demanded members of the military alliance ratchet up spending.

The comments offer a measure of reassurance to European allies reeling from the prospect of American withdrawal and the U.S. president’s punishing round of tariffs announced this week.

Arriving at a two-day meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers, Rubio reiterated Trump’s demand to spend as much as 5% of gross domestic product on defense — but issued a counterpoint to allies gearing up to scale back their reliance on the U.S.

“The United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been,” Rubio said in Brussels Thursday alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “Some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted,” he added, a reference to speculation that Trump might withdraw from the 75-year alliance.

But Rubio said he wanted to leave the meeting at NATO headquarters with commitments by member states to spend up to 5% of GDP — more than twice the current benchmark. “That includes the United States,” he said.

NATO foreign ministers arriving in Brussels were aiming to sound Rubio out on Trump’s plans in the backdrop of fears that the U.S. administration is dismantling the global trading system and withdrawing support for Ukraine. European officials dialed up the message that they’re preparing to scale back their reliance on NATO’s most powerful member.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, called Rubio’s remarks “positive” — and said the U.S. has long urge its allies “to shoulder much more burden” in terms of defense spending.

“What is positive is that we have heard that message and that we are doing more,” Kallas told reporters after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Warsaw on Thursday. Earlier, she said the bloc needs to reduce its dependence on U.S. military equipment as it absorbs the impact of Trump’s latest round of tariffs.

“We need to diversify our portfolio so that we would have capabilities to produce here — the ammunition and things we need here,” Kallas said.

EU defense ministers met in the Polish capital to discuss how to ramp up their military capabilities amid growing threats from Moscow and to bolster support for Kyiv in its three-year war against Russia.

So far, the bloc has struggled to move quickly to fill the void that the U.S. would leave in supporting Kyiv after Trump briefly halted all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine following his spat with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Kallas has sought to rally support for her initiative for the EU to deliver 2 million of artillery rounds to Ukraine this year. So far there have been commitments for “over 50% of what is needed,” she said. The support is required to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in peace talks, Kallas added.

But Kallas’s call to wean Europe off its military dependence on the U.S. may still sit uneasily with some members, such as Poland, who are already increasing their military spending with most contracts going to American firms.

Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds said the U.S. was indispensable as a partner despite the tensions.

“Sometimes we see some contradictory signals,” he said. “But it does not mean we are not partners. We are strategic partners, we are strategic allies.”

Latvia’s foreign minister, Baiba Braze, said that the Baltic country has committed to spending 5% of GDP on defense from around 3.7% expected at the end of this year. “We think others should also step up,” she told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Thursday.

Speaking alongside Rubio in Brussels, Rutte called on European militaries to do more even as they’ve boosted spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Wednesday, he said Europe needs to step up as the U.S. tilts away from the region to focus more on threats from Asia.

As has happened several times in Trump’s second term, Rubio struck a far friendlier tone than other members of the administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have accused Europe of “free-loading” off the U.S.

Trump “has made clear he supports NATO,” Rubio said. “We are going to remain in NATO.”

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(With assistance from Katharina Rosskopf, Thomas Hall, Michal Kubala and Aaron Eglitis.)

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