US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised US president Donald Trump in Brussels Wednesday, with Hegseth describing Trump's leadership as "the active application of peace through strength."

Speaking ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Hegseth said: "You get peace when you are strong, not when you use strong words or wag your finger, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect."

The meeting on Wednesday aims to drum up more military support for Ukraine amid a sharp drop in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the war-ravaged country in recent months.

The ministers will also debate a call from NATO’s commander to lift restrictions on the use of their aircraft and other equipment so they can be used to defend the alliance’s eastern border with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine more effectively.

A series of mysterious drone incidents and airspace violations by Russian war planes has fueled concerns that President Vladimir Putin might be testing NATO’s defensive reflexes. Some leaders have accused him of waging a hybrid war in Europe. Moscow denies probing NATO’s defenses.