US defense chief to skip Ukraine aid meeting in Brussels

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not attend Wednesday’s meeting of the NATO-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), marking the first time a Pentagon chief has missed the monthly forum since it was created after Russia’s invasion, according to reports.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Foto: Photo: EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

Hegseth, whose “scheduling issues” were not specified, will be represented by U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker. Washington ceded the chair of the 50-nation group to Germany and Britain in February, and has announced no fresh American weapons packages for Kyiv since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The UDCG has funneled about $126 billion (€111 billion) in military aid to Ukraine over the past three years, including $66.5 billion from the United States. Allies say the absence of the forum’s founder underscores a broader U.S. push to shift more of the security burden to Europe, according to Euronews.

Hegseth will join fellow ministers on Thursday for a separate NATO defense meeting expected to endorse a draft pledge raising national defense spending targets from 2 percent to 5 percent of GDP ahead of the leaders’ summit in The Hague on 30 June, which Trump is due to attend.

The proposal would split the goal into 3.5 percent for core defense outlays and 1.5 percent for cyber, critical infrastructure and other “defense-related” costs. None of the alliance’s 32 members currently meets that level.

NATO officials said the summit will also spotlight Russia’s war in Ukraine and that President Volodymyr Zelensky is likely to be invited, though the format of his participation has yet to be decided.

(jh)

Source: Euronews, AP News