Europe should welcome rather than rebuff U.S. President Donald Trump's call for other NATO members to ramp up their military spending, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday, stressing the importance of security to the continent.

The EU's top diplomat and Poland's prime minister said Wednesday that the bloc must heed US President Donald Trump's demand to spend much more on defence -- faced with the "existential threat" posed by Russia.

As Donald Trump begins his second term in office, he has called for NATO members to raise their defence budgets to five per cent of GDP.

Germany met NATO's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government said on Monday, though well short of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's call for as much as 5%.