 NATO head to meet Trump in Washington: spokeswoman Brussels (AFP) March 21, 2017 - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will head to Washington next month for his first meeting with President Donald Trump since his election, an alliance spokeswoman said Tuesday. "They will discuss the importance of a strong NATO in providing collective defence and projecting stability beyond the alliance's borders," the spokeswoman said of the April 12 meeting. Leaders of NATO nations will then gather in Brussels on May 25 for their first summit since Trump's stunning win in November. Trump caused dismay in Europe when he said on the campaign trail that NATO was "obsolete" and failing to meet the challenge posed by Islamist terror groups. At the summit leaders will discuss "the alliance's role in the fight against terrorism, and the importance of increased defence spending and fairer burden-sharing," a NATO spokeswoman said. Trump's administration has repeatedly pressed the allies to meet a pledge to spend two percent of GDP annually on defence by 2024.
France's far-right leader Le Pen visits troops in Chad After arriving around 1200 GMT, Le Pen was expected to head to President Idriss Deby's family residence at Amdjarass, 900 kilometres (560 miles) northeast of the capital N'Djamena. The French defence ministry has responsibility for field visits made by political candidates, in line with security considerations and availability. The National Front leader will on Wednesday meet soldiers of Operation Barkhane, a force sent by France to help fight armed Islamic extremists in Africa's Sahel region. The force's headquarters is in N'Djamena. "The National Union for Democracy and Renewal (UNDR) categorically opposes the announced visit of Mrs Marine Le Pen, candidate of the racist and xenophobic extreme right in the French presidential election," the party said earlier in a statement. "Chad should not show the slightest support for this candidacy under the cover of visiting the Barkhane force and meeting Chadian authorities." UNDR leader Saleh Kebzabo took on regional strongman Deby in an election last year. In power since 1990, Deby won a fifth term with almost 60 percent of the votes, according to the official result. Le Pen has said she will raise French defence spending if she becomes president. The election first round takes place on April 23 and the final run-off vote is on May 7. The National Front leader is not accompanied by journalists, but will wrap up her trip with a press conference, according to Radio France Internationale. "Any candidates who wish may go to the theatre of operations," a source close to Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday.
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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will skip a NATO meeting in April but travel to Russia the same month, fuelling fears about Washington's commitment to the alliance.
Tillerson will be replaced by his deputy at the Brussels meeting on April 5 and 6, despite Washington's efforts to quash questions about US President Donald Trump's support for NATO and quest for better ties with Moscow.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to visit Trump at his Florida golf resort in early April, and Tillerson would be expected to attend, but officials did not offer this as an explanation.
Instead, they insisted Tillerson will in any case meet most of the foreign ministers from the 28-nation military alliance at the State Department this week at a conference for the coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
"The United States remains 100 percent committed to NATO. President Trump said this in his very first address to a joint session of Congress. He said our commitment to NATO is unwavering and it remains so," acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday.
"We are trying to work out alternative dates where the secretary could attend a ministerial, but that has to be a decision reached by a consensus and we're mindful of that. So we're trying to work out a compromise here."
Toner said the decision was not unprecedented, and that secretaries of state had missed the April foreign ministers meeting in 2003 and 1999.
In Brussels, the United States will be represented by Tom Shannon, the highest ranking career diplomat left in the State Department from the previous administration and Tillerson's acting deputy.
After almost two months in the job, Tillerson has yet to appoint a deputy or any assistant secretaries, has avoided public and press events and is working with a small inner circle of advisers.
The administration, meanwhile, has been scrambling to reaffirm its commitment to Washington's military alliances -- including NATO -- after Trump called into question their usefulness during the presidential campaign.
Just last week, after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House, Trump took to Twitter to claim that Germany owes "vast sums of money to NATO and the United States," reviving his charge that US allies are not paying their way.
- Exposed flank -
Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis, a former Marine general, has declared that the United States fully supports NATO, and Tillerson travelled last week to Asia to reaffirm ties with allies Japan and South Korea.
But the United States is by far the North Atlantic alliance's leading partner, and Tillerson's absence from its foreign ministers' meeting will be noted with concern, especially by newer East European members on its exposed east flank.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was in Washington for meetings at the Pentagon ahead of Wednesday's coalition talks, but he refused to respond to questions on Tillerson's decision.
In Brussels, NATO officials played down the snub.
"All allies are represented at NATO ministerial meetings, which are important regular events. It's up to allies to decide at what level they are represented," one said.
Stoltenberg "will continue his regular contacts with the US administration, which has confirmed its strong commitment to NATO, both in words and in deeds."
But former US officials expressed concern at the message Tillerson is sending.
Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO and now president of the Chicago Council think tank, wrote on Twitter that the decision "feeds growing allied doubts about US commitments."
He also dismissed the State Department's attempt to build up this week's anti-IS meeting, saying the April foreign ministers' meeting is crucial preparation for the full NATO summit that Washington "can't miss."
In Brussels, a NATO spokeswoman confirmed that the heads of state summit, which Trump is expected to attend, will go ahead on May 25.
Another former ambassador to NATO, Harvard professor Nicholas Burns, said: "Of course Secretary Tillerson should be at the NATO meeting. We are the leader of NATO and should meet with allies before Russia."
- Bloody uprising -
Under Obama, the United States worked with NATO to shore up support for the pro-western government in Kiev after Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for a bloody uprising in eastern Ukraine.
Combined with economic sanctions, the deployment of more NATO troops from Western members to frontline Eastern allies in the Baltics and Poland was intended to send a signal to Moscow that further intervention would not be tolerated.
But during his successful 2016 presidential campaign, Trump struck a more emollient tone with Moscow, even expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, while dismissing NATO as "obsolete."
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