Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top strategist, speaks in this undated photo. Colby praised NATO allies for increased defense spending during a visit to the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 12, 2026. (Chad Trujillo/U.S. Air Force)
Greater investment in defense by allies has put NATO in a position of allowing members to “march out together” in partnership amid a more limited American military posture in Europe, the Pentagon’s top strategist said Thursday.
“I think in 2025 you saw a reframing and a real, genuine commitment,” Elbridge Colby, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for policy, said at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where high-level talks got underway.
Colby, who is representing the U.S. in lieu of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, credited allies for responding to President Donald Trump’s demand that NATO members ramp up their defense spending.
But in an address to defense ministers, he emphasized that allies need to take the next step as the United States prepares to divert some of its resources.
“The turning of the tide has happened,” Colby said. “And we should take pride and confidence in that. But the great task before us in 2026 and beyond is to turn that recognition into durable and real results.”
Colby pledged that the United States would be candid about future changes.
“We will continue to provide the U.S. extended nuclear deterrent,” he said. “And we will also continue, in a more limited and focused fashion, to provide conventional capabilities that contribute to NATO’s defense.”
But the primary responsibility for conventional defense on the Continent must belong to Europeans, he added.
Believing that the U.S. “can indefinitely serve” as the guarantor of Europe’s security “is an aspiration divorced from resources,” Colby said.
Colby is well-known in defense circles as a China hawk with a long track record of pushing for reduced U.S. troop levels in Europe and a refocus toward missions in the Indo-Pacific.
At NATO’s defense ministerial, his comments praising allies for their big increases in defense spending were likely met with relief. However, Colby didn’t detail how extensive changes to the U.S. future posture might be.
Despite his comments about transferring more responsibility to the Europeans, there have been indications that potential U.S. force changes may not be as drastic as some allies have feared.
Citing unidentified alliance officials, Euronews and Politico reported on the eve of the ministerial that changes in U.S. troop levels in Europe are expected to involve minor tweaks rather than sweeping reductions.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also said Thursday that he expects the United States to maintain a conventional military presence on the Continent for the foreseeable future.
“I predict that (in the) longer term you will see of course the nuclear umbrella as the ultimate guarantor of our security here in Europe and Canada, but also a strong conventional presence of the U.S. here in Europe, which is crucial,” Rutte said.
About 85,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe, roughly 20,000 on a rotational basis.
Ahead of the discussions in Brussels, NATO leaders have been adjusting the alliance with an eye on changes that put Europeans into more prominent positions in the command structure.
NATO’s Joint Force Command in Norfolk, Va., and a similar headquarters in Naples, Italy, both led by American officers, will eventually transfer to European officers, as part of the shakeup announced this week.
A NATO official described the arrangement as “Europe moving to the fore, and Americans absolutely committed to NATO.”
Allies on Wednesday also launched Arctic Sentry, a new operation aimed at addressing Trump’s concerns about security in Greenland and the broader Arctic.
“It is not only (about countering) Russia; it is also China,” Rutte said. “We know that sea lanes are opening. So we have to defend our Arctic.”
Following the NATO talks, alliance members met with Ukrainian officials to discuss the country’s defense needs. In the past, the United States led the coalition known as the Ukraine Contact Group.
Germany and the United Kingdom are now the main organizers of its activities.
Allies have pledged to spend more on an initiative that involves purchase of American weapons systems by allies for onward movement to Ukraine.
