By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, two U.S. officials said, in a highly unusual absence of the top U.S. diplomat from a key transatlantic gathering.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will represent Washington instead, said one of the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss matters that have not yet been made public.
It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the December 3 meeting, and his plans could change. But his likely no-show comes when U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been scrambling to narrow gaps over President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with some European diplomats complaining they are being cut out of the process.
There are usually two formal NATO meetings of foreign ministers per year, and it is exceedingly rare for a U.S. secretary of state to be absent. In 2017, during Trump’s first term, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson initially planned to skip an April meeting, though the gathering was then rescheduled to accommodate his schedule.
RUBIO MEETS WITH ALLIES REGULARLY: STATE DEPARTMENT
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Rubio’s potential absence, but said the NATO alliance had been “completely revitalized” during the Trump administration and noted that Rubio met with several European officials recently in Switzerland.
“Secretary Rubio also meets with and talks to NATO allies regularly, including last weekend in Geneva,” the spokesperson said.
A senior State Department official said Rubio attends enough gatherings.
“Secretary Rubio has already attended dozens of meetings with NATO allies, and it would be completely impractical to expect him at every meeting,” the official said.
A NATO official deferred to the United States regarding Rubio’s attendance, but said it was not unusual for some foreign ministers to skip the event.
Ukrainian and European officials have been wary of being coerced into accepting a deal that is too favorable to Russian interests, concerns that have intensified considerably after a draft 28-point plan to end the war was leaked to the media on November 18.
Rubio’s absence risks deepening questions over Washington’s commitment to European security, which has already taken a hit in recent years.
Washington is the de facto leader of NATO but Trump has repeatedly raised doubts about the alliance’s necessity and has suggested at times that he could pull out of the decades-old alliance.
Landau, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat who will attend on Rubio’s behalf, questioned the need for NATO in a June post on X, which he later deleted.
Trump reaffirmed his faith in the grouping during a NATO leaders’ summit in June that was widely viewed as a success, but he has also consistently pressured member states to boost their defense spending, saying Washington was no longer going to “bail them out.”
The likely absence comes at a particularly fraught moment for Ukraine. In addition to concerns over peace negotiations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, quit on Friday, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Chris Reese, Diane Craft, Rod Nickel)
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