Singapore: US Secretary of Defense pete hegseth On Saturday he took another dig at Washington’s NATO and European partners, saying those who do not substantially increase defense spending “will face a marked change in the way we do business”.NATO members pledged last year to increase defense-related spending to five percent of gross domestic product, but despite increased efforts, many states say they may not be able to reach that goal.“For too long, polite pleas by our European allies to spend more on their defense have fallen on deaf ears,” the Pentagon chief told a defense summit in Singapore.“They’re finally playing catch-up,” Hegseth said in a speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue conference.“Allies who refuse to step up and carry their weight to protect our collective will face drastic changes to the way we do business.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this month that NATO was facing U.S. troop cuts in Europe as Washington focused on other threats and European countries stepped up their security.In Asia, Hegseth reiterated that the region’s security “rests disproportionately on American military power, while many of our allies and partners have allowed their own defense capabilities to weaken”.Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region are actually moving forward, Hegseth said, using South Korea as a specific example.“South Korea has continually invested in its defense because it does not have the luxury of treating war like an academic exercise.“They remain on the front lines, and so they constitute the real fighting force.”“This reflects a clear understanding of the threat environment,” he said.Hegseth also praised the spending policies of other countries, including Australia, the Philippines and Japan.“You don’t have a strong coalition unless everyone is in the game. No freebies,” Hegseth said.When Hegseth was asked by a New Zealand representative whether he considered the Pacific island nation’s plan to increase defense spending by one to two percent as “freebies”, he agreed.“If I’m being honest, two percent is not enough, and so two percent is freebies.“I have nothing against New Zealand, (but) I want the partners to step up,” Hegseth said.