US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged his French counterpart Sebastien Le Corneille on Tuesday to increase military spending and, together with other NATO allies, assume "primary responsibility for Europe's conventional defense," the Pentagon said, as quoted by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Hegseth and the French defense minister, who is visiting Washington, also discussed "priorities related to this topic, including efforts to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine," a Pentagon statement said.
On his first official visit to Europe in February, Hegseth delivered the same message to US allies on the continent.
"It is time to invest, because you cannot count on the American presence to continue forever", he noted during a visit to Poland.
Lecornu's visit to Washington coincides with talks on the conflict in Ukraine between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris.
The US president has insisted that all NATO countries spend at least 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, which for many of them is a very ambitious target.
The US spends 3.4% of its GDP on defence, while most European countries spend around 2%.