WASHINGTON: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth will skip a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels next week, a US official said Thursday, with a deputy set to represent Washington instead.
The official – who spoke on condition of anonymity – said undersecretary of defence for policy Elbridge Colby would attend in Hegseth’s place, but did not provide a reason for the Pentagon chief’s planned absence from the Feb 12 meeting.
President Donald Trump recently plunged Nato into its deepest crisis in years by threatening to take Greenland by force, insisting that Washington must control alliance member Denmark’s autonomous Arctic territory for security reasons.