Frozen copy retrieved 2026-06-18T11:43:00Z for audit 2026-06-18T21-21-08Z. Original URL: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/era-of-free-riding-is-over-trumps-war-secry-hegseth-slams-nato-allies-threatens-defence-funding-freeze/. The Stochastic Parrot does not host or redistribute; this snapshot exists solely so that quoted spans remain verifiable if the original page changes. Character offsets below index into this plain text; highlighted spans are the quotes cited in the audit.

"Era of free riding is over": Trump's War Secry Hegseth slams NATO allies, threatens defence funding freeze

ANI (Tribune India) · back to the audit

'Era of free riding is over': Trump's War Secry Hegseth slams NATO allies, threatens defence funding freeze

By ANI

Brussels [Belgium], June 18 (ANI): US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has announced that America will conduct a comprehensive review of its forces stationed in Europe. The announcement follows a sharp critique directed at the volume of financial contributions made by the United Kingdom and other international allies to the NATO alliance.

Addressing defence ministers at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth stated that, for an extended period, NATO had functioned as a 'paper tiger and a one-way street', exhibiting excessive dependence on Washington.

He further asserted that 'some of NATO's largest economies... still think the era of free riding is here'.

'It was shameful,' he added during his address.