Tillerson to skip NATO meeting in Brussels next month

BRUSSELS/MOSCOW: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels in April, but will travel to Russia and Italy the same month, a US official said Tuesday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry however declined on Tuesday to confirm or deny reported plans by Tillerson to visit Moscow, expressing its surprise at the “regular leak” of information from Washington.
Tillerson will be replaced by a lower-level official at the NATO meeting on April 5-6, a development that will likely fuel new concerns about US President Donald Trump’s commitment to the alliance as he pushes for better ties with Moscow.
“Tom Shannon (the US under secretary of state) will represent the United States at the NATO Foreign Ministerial,” the US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Tillerson will meet most of the foreign ministers from the 28-nation military alliance at a meeting in Washington this week, the official added.
“He has already met with officials from Ukraine. After these consultations and meetings, in April he will travel to a meeting of the G7 in Italy and then on to meetings in Russia,” the official said.
Under President Barack Obama’s administration, NATO sought to shore up support for the pro-Western government in Kiev after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for an uprising in eastern Ukraine.
But during his election campaign, Trump expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he would seek better ties with his government, while in January he dismissed NATO as “obsolete.”
Visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels last month, US Vice President Mike Pence sought to reassure the allies about his government’s commitment to them, particularly as the Baltic states and Poland fear Russian meddling in their affairs.
But Pence said that Trump expects NATO allies to make real progress by the end of this year toward meeting the increased defense spending target agreed by the alliance.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg traveled to Washington on Monday for the first time since Trump was elected, and will hold talks with members of the US-led coalition working to defeat the Daesh group.
The Trump administration has sought to involve NATO more in fighting the militants.
Meanwhile, sources told Reuters on Monday Tillerson planned to skip his first meeting of the 28 NATO allies in April in order to stay home for a visit by China’s president and then go to Russia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to media requests for confirmation of Tillerson’s Moscow visit that the ministry was “not prepared to confirm or deny this information.”
“But we are certainly surprised by the regular leak of sensitive information from Washington,” she said in a post on Facebook.
“It’s time for US political elites to figure out if ‘Russian hackers’ have once again got into State Department servers or if the threat to US cybersecurity has an American origin after all,” Zakharova said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said later he was unaware of plans by Tillerson to visit Moscow.
Skipping the NATO meeting and visiting Moscow could risk feeding a perception that Trump’s administration may be prioritizing US dealings with big powers over smaller nations that depend on Washington for security.
Tillerson worked with Russia’s government for years in his former role as a top executive at Exxon Mobil Corp. He has questioned the wisdom of sanctions against Russia that he said could harm US businesses.