Pete Hegseth will not come to Brussels. A clear signal from the USA to NATO

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth will not take part in the February meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing US and NATO representatives.

This will be another absence of a US minister in Brussels after Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not attend the meeting of the heads of foreign ministries of the Alliance countries in December.

According to a US official and a NATO diplomat quoted by Reuters, Hegseth's presence at the ministerial meeting scheduled for February 13 is “not expected.”

In December, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not attend the meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the Alliance's countries, which was the first such case in over two decades. In Rubio's replacement, the State Department sent deputy minister Christopher Landau, known for his criticism of NATO.

During the meeting, Landau criticized, among others, excluding American arms companies from EU mechanisms for financing defense investments. After the meeting, he also accused EU countries that are NATO members of pursuing “interests hostile to the US” and striving for “civilizational suicide.”

Hegseth has previously withdrawn from several NATO meetings, including the June meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council and the meeting of ministers of countries supporting Ukraine under the Ramstein format.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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