America’s smaller European allies have expressed concern about President Donald Trump’s mixed signals on whether he would protect them against Russia.
The uncertainty threatened to deepen late Monday when U.S. officials said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planned to skip what would have been his first official meeting with NATO in April.
However, Tillerson will travel later in the month to a series of unspecified meetings in Russia, a State Department spokesman confirmed to NBC News.
The spokesman said Tillerson would meet almost all of the alliance’s members Wednesday when the Coalition to Defeat ISIS gathers in Washington. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also attend.
Tillerson’s looming trip to Moscow was not being discussed by the Russian side, however, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova writing on her official Facebook page that “we will not be confirming or denying this information at this stage.”
Nevertheless, Tillerson’s decision will likely raise eyebrows among some of the United States’ European partners. Close to the Russian border, some people fear that Trump’s thawing relationship with President Vladimir Putin could leave them exposed. Like NATO, Moscow has been ramping its military exercises and also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
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NBC's @mitchellreports: Rex Tillerson is skipping a summit with NATO allies; will travel to Russia https://t.co/leB5fqbFnA
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 21, 2017
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