NATO chief urges allies to do more and says their freedom and prosperity depend on it

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday urged the 32 member nations to devote more funds, equipment and political energy to the world’s biggest military alliance, as the United States steps back from its leading security role in Europe.

“In 2025, we need to significantly increase our efforts to ensure NATO remains a key source of military advantage for all our nations. Our continued freedom and prosperity depend on it,” Rutte wrote in his annual report.

NATO has been in disarray since February, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that America’s security priorities lie elsewhere -– in Asia and on its own borders -– and that Europe would have to look after its own security and that of Ukraine, in future.

Rutte’s report was posted on NATO’s website without any obvious publicity. In previous years, secretaries-general have promoted their annual reports with news conferences and press releases. NATO did not respond when asked why the approach has changed.

Rutte was in Washington on Thursday for meetings with senior U.S. officials, two months before he’s due to chair a summit of U.S. President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands.

The leaders are expected to set on a new NATO guideline for defense spending. In 2023, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine entered its second year, they agreed that all allies should spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on their military budgets.

Estimates in the annual report showed that 22 allies had reached that goal last year, compared to a previous forecast of 23. Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain did not. Spain does expect to reach the goal this year, but the new goal could be over 3%.

The United States is now estimated to have spent 3.19% of GDP in 2024, down from 3.68% a decade ago when all NATO members vowed to increase defense spending after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

While it’s the only ally to have lower spending as a percentage of GDP than in 2014, the U.S. still spends more in dollar terms than the others combined. The report estimated that total NATO military spending last year reached around $1.3 trillion.

In a sign of just how dominant the United States is within NATO, Hegseth told the Europeans and Canada in February that Ukraine would not get all its territory back from Russia and would not be allowed to join their military alliance.

“NATO support for Ukraine remained strong in 2024,” Rutte wrote in the report, even as doubts surround the Trump administration’s commitment to the country as ceasefire talks falter.

“Looking to the future, NATO allies are united in their desire for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” Rutte wrote. It was a low-key assessment of backing compared to that of his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg just a year ago.

“Ukraine must prevail as an independent, sovereign nation,” Stoltenberg wrote in his last annual report. “Supporting Ukraine is not charity, it is in our own security interest.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Pentagon, Thursday, April 24, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pose for a photo during their meeting in Odesa, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 15, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, center left, shares a laugh with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, center right, before the start of a meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, center, meets with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at the Pentagon, Thursday, April 24, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.

Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.

Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.

“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”

Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.

Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)