Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not attend Wednesday’s NATO meeting in Brussels of 50 top defense officials concerning military aid for Ukraine.
The meeting comes as the war in Ukraine intensifies after a resoundingly successful attack on Russian airfields by Ukrainian drones on Sunday. The attack will likely have a significant impact on Russia’s long-range missile capabilities.
Hegseth’s office cited scheduling concerns as the reason for his absence from the meeting, though the defense secretary will be in Brussels on Thursday for a different NATO meeting.
“Secretary Hegseth’s travel schedule precluded attendance at tomorrow’s UDCG meeting,” Defense Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement. “The United States is focused on ending the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible, on terms that establish an enduring peace.”
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker will attend in Hegseth’s place. Whitaker said in May that the United States would discuss troop withdrawals from Europe later this year but that nothing has been determined. Hegseth said during the NATO meeting in February that American troops’ presence in Europe was “not forever.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would attend a NATO summit in The Hague later this month. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that he invited Ukraine to the summit in The Hague.
Leavitt said Trump “remains positive” about ending the Ukraine war. “The president does not want to see this war prolonged. He wants the fighting to stop. He wants people to stop dying, and he wants this to be solved at the negotiating table,” she said.
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Though the Trump administration continues to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine as part of a $61 billion aid package former President Joe Biden established, Trump temporarily suspended military aid to the country after his Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the end of February.
Ukraine and Russia met for peace talks on Monday and agreed to swap thousands of dead and injured troops. For now, Russia has presented a plan, which Ukraine will not agree to, that includes instating Russian as Ukraine’s official language, limiting the size of its military force, and Ukraine pledging not to join NATO.