It was 2 a.m. in Turkey, and Jeff Flake had a promise to keep.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte discussed the alliance in a call on Wednesday, including "building a stronger, more lethal NATO Alliance" and raising allied defense spending,

NATO has said its pledge for tens of billions of dollars in security aid for Ukraine will be fulfilled by the end of 2025. The alliance announced on Wednesday that 40 billion euros ($41.6 billion) which had been agreed by the bloc's 32 members during its Washington, D.C. summit last July would be sent to Kyiv this year.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Sen. Mike Lee are advocating for the U.S. to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organiation (NATO). "If you could snap your fingers and get us out of NATO today, would you?" Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked in a post on X.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is on course to fulfill its promise to send approximately $41.6 billion (40 billion euros) in security assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska said on Jan.

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters

NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Šekerinska has said that the Alliance is on track to fulfil its 2025 defence funding plan for Ukraine. Source: Šekerinska at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels on 29 January,

Any attempt to get Ukraine into Nato will run into a “buzz saw” in Washington unless Europe pays for it, a top diplomat for Donald Trump has said.

The U.S. spends around 3 percent of economic output on defense{beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security   The Big Story

The 23 EU members who also belong to NATO are likely to agree to raise the defence spending target above the current 2% of national output at a June summit of the alliance that will set a new level, European Council President Antonio Costa said.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says that any peace settlement in Ukraine must involve Kyiv and come with more defense spending by regional countries to deter future Russian aggression

It is now a weapon being used against us.” Trump’s skepticism about U.S. support for Ukraine and Taiwan, his eagerness to impose tariffs, and his threats to retake the Panama Canal, absorb Canada, and acquire Greenland make it clear that he envisions a return to nineteenth-century power politics and spheres of interest,