US urges Europe to take the lead on defence in NATO

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby says current NATO approach ‘no longer fit for purpose’.Published On 12 Feb 2026Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has called for NATO “partnerships not dependencies”, saying Europe must take primary responsibility for its defence.The US official was in Brussels to meet with NATO’s defence ministers on Thursday, where he delivered remarks calling for “clear-eyed realism and fundamental adaptation by all”.Noting that the current approach of the military alliance was “no longer fit for purpose”, he said a new “NATO 3.0” required “much greater efforts by our allies to step up and assume primary responsibility for the conventional defence of Europe”.Insisting that the US’s reprioritising of its interests was not a retreat from Europe, he said it was an “affirmation of strategic pragmatism and a recognition of our allies’ undeniable ability to step up”.Colby said the US would continue to provide its extended nuclear deterrent and, “in a more limited and focused fashion”, contribute to NATO’s defence, as well as “train, exercise, and plan alongside our allies”.“But we will also continue to press, respectfully but firmly and insistently, for a rebalancing of roles and burdens within the Alliance,” he added.PURL pledgesNATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at a news conference on Thursday that the meeting was “one of the most pivotal” that he had been part of.He said that he believed that the longer term would see the US’s “nuclear umbrella as the ultimate guarantor of our security here in Europe and Canada, but also a strong conventional presence of the US here in Europe.”