U. S. Top Diplomat May Miss Crucial NATO Gathering

A significant NATO meeting is coming up, and guess who might not show up? Marco Rubio, the U. S. Secretary of State, is considering skipping the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels next week. This is not your average absence; it's quite unusual for the top U. S. diplomat to miss such an important event. Instead of Rubio, Christopher Landau, the Deputy Secretary of State, will be there. No one is quite sure why Rubio might skip it, but it's happening at a tricky time. The U. S. and Ukraine are trying to figure out a way to end the war with Russia, and some European diplomats feel left out of the loop. NATO usually has two big meetings a year, and it's rare for the U. S. Secretary of State to miss one. The last time this happened was in 2017, when Rex Tillerson, the then-Secretary of State, initially planned to skip a meeting but it was rescheduled. A NATO official said it's not uncommon for some foreign ministers to miss these meetings, but Rubio's possible absence is raising eyebrows. The State Department hasn't commented yet. There's a lot at stake. Ukrainian and European officials are worried about being pushed into a deal that benefits Russia too much. This concern grew after a draft plan to end the war was leaked last month. Rubio's absence could make people question the U. S. 's commitment to European security. President Trump has often questioned NATO's importance and even suggested pulling out of the alliance. Landau, who will attend the meeting, once questioned NATO's necessity on social media but later deleted the post. This is all happening at a tough time for Ukraine. Besides the peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff just quit after anti-corruption agents searched his home.