Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel this week to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden, where US plans to reduce troop levels in Europe coupled with President Donald Trump’s often inconsistent stance on the alliance have created concern while the world grapples with the fallout from the Iran war and rising energy prices.
The State Department said that Rubio would attend the NATO meeting in Helsingborg on Friday, one of the last senior-level NATO gatherings before alliance leaders meet at a summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July.
Rubio will then travel on to India and plans to visit four cities, including Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi, where he will see Indian officials and is expected to meet with his Indian, Australian and Japanese counterparts, the other three members of the so-called “Quad” grouping of Indo-Pacific democracies.
In Sweden, Rubio will echo previous US demands “for increased defense investment and greater burden sharing in the alliance,” the State Department said in a statement.
It added that he would also focus on Arctic issues and meet with NATO’s Arctic members “to discuss our shared economic and security interests in the Arctic and our strengthened posture in the High North.”
The statement did not mention Greenland by name, but Trump has rankled Europeans with persistent talk about wanting to take over the Danish territory. Trump’s special envoy for Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, visited the island this week.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Monday that he had a respectful and positive meeting with Landry, but that he made it clear that the Greenlandic people insist on self-determination.
“The Greenlandic people are not for sale. Greenlandic self-determination is not something that can be negotiated,” Nielsen was quoted by Danish TV 2 as saying after meeting Landry.
For Europeans nervous about Trump, Rubio’s presence at transatlantic meetings has often been welcomed because of his less antagonistic nature and calm demeanor.
He has been dispatched on several such missions this year, including to the Munich Security Conference in February, and more recently to Italy, where he met with Italian officials and the pope after Trump criticized the pontiff for his stances on crime and the Iran war.
Ahead of the NATO foreign ministers meeting, the alliance’s top military officer said Tuesday that he doesn’t expect any more drawdowns of American troops from Europe — at least not anytime soon — beyond the 5,000 that Trump announced would leave the continent.
The remarks by US Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich follow Trump’s surprise announcement of the move early this month. The US leader has bickered with allies over the Iran war and called for changes.
The Pentagon later said it would draw down thousands of troops in Europe by canceling deployments to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking out forces already stationed there.
