type: timeline_event
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does not attend the gathering of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, marking the second consecutive ministerial-level NATO meeting skipped by top Trump administration officials after Secretary of State Marco Rubio missed the December foreign ministers meeting. This represents only the second time in recent history that a Pentagon chief has not attended a NATO defense ministers meeting.
Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby attends in Hegseth's place and presents a vision of "NATO 3.0" that would be "more balanced, credible and rooted in shared strength and realism." Colby argues that while the United States defends its territory and "interests in our hemisphere" and the Indo-Pacific, "it follows that Europe should field the preponderance of the forces required to deter and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe."
European allies publicly downplay the absence. Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir tells reporters: "Sadly for him, he is missing a good party. Of course, it's always better that the ministers attend here, but I would not describe it as a bad signal." German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius states: "I'm not disappointed. Each of us has a full agenda."
However, sixteen former U.S. ambassadors and top military officers who served at NATO issue a joint statement defending the organization and warning that if the United States withdraws from NATO or erodes trust among allies, "the immediate result would not be a 'peace dividend'" but instead higher costs, greater risks, and a loss of U.S. influence and legitimacy. The pattern of absences reinforces European concerns that the Trump administration is incrementally "quiet quitting" the alliance it has led for nearly eight decades.