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LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- U.S. pressure on NATO allies to increase their defense spending "is not a hostile thing," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, but reiterated that the Trump administration wants the military alliance to be a stronger deterrent against threats.
Rubio told reporters during a visit to European NATO ally Portugal that "the stronger the members of NATO are, the stronger NATO is, the stronger the alliances and the stronger the deterrence is."
U.S. President Donald Trump has long railed against NATO allies for spending too small a fraction of their national budgets on defense, leaving the United States to shoulder what he says is an unfair burden. Some members of the 32-country alliance have been reluctant to divert funds from other government policies, however.
"People sometimes view this call to invest more in defense as a hostile thing," Rubio said. "It is not a hostile thing."
Rubio, who was in Portugal on the last leg of a three-nation tour of NATO allies that also included Iceland and Greece, acknowledged that some smaller NATO members, such as Portugal, have difficulty finding the funds for major military projects.
"Every country is of a different size and proportion. Some countries can contribute more than others, but every country in NATO needs to be as strong as they can possibly be," Rubio told a news conference in Lisbon.
He noted the danger of the war in Ukraine, following Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022, spilling beyond Ukrainian borders. An apparent stalemate in Ukraine could bring a military escalation in Europe, he said.
"That escalation could wind up being a sabotage campaign in neighboring countries that are members of NATO," he said. That could "quickly turn what is a war between two countries into a much broader and far more dangerous regional conflict."
European officials have accused Moscow of a campaign of sabotage and disruption aimed at undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations.