President Trump will travel to Brussels for May NATO meeting
WASHINGTON -- The White House has announced what is expected to be President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the president will travel to Brussels, Belgium, on May 25 for a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization heads of state.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the meeting earlier Tuesday.
Spicer says the president is looking forward to meeting with his NATO counterparts “to reaffirm our strong commitment to NATO, and to discuss issues critical to the alliance, especially allied responsibility-sharing and NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism.”
Stoltenberg is set to visit the White House on April 12.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump was critical of NATO, calling it “obsolete” and suggesting the U.S. might set conditions for defending its NATO allies. He had similarly harsh words for Brussels, once saying it was “like living in a hellhole right now.” And on Saturday, a day after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Trump tweeted that Germany owes “vast sums” of money to the U.S. and NATO.
Others in the administration have made clear their commitment to NATO, however. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference last month, Vice President Pence said the U.S. has an “unwavering” commitment to NATO. On the same trip, Pence also traveled to Brussels to meet with Stoltenberg and others.
The news of Mr. Trump’s trip to the NATO meeting also comes the same week that U.S. officials said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would skip the semiannual meeting of NATO foreign ministers early next month. The State Department says that it has proposed a few alternative dates that would enable Tillerson to attend, but NATO would have to agree to the date change. Tillerson will still, however, attend the G7 meeting in Sicily in May.
