The US secretary of war has said America needs “partners, not protectorates,” amid a dispute over the military bloc’s burden sharing The US will no longer “subsidize” the defense of “wealthy” allies, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said, reviving a long-running dispute between Washington and NATO’s European members over military spending. The remarks were made at a major security summit in Singapore on Friday. Hegseth linked the Trump administration’s push for higher allied defense spending