Rex Tillerson is expected to travel to Russia for meetings in Moscow and to Italy instead of attending the NATO meeting. | Getty Tillerson to skip April NATO meeting

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will not attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers next month, just the third time in the past 21 years that America’s top diplomat has skipped such a gathering.

The State Department, which announced that Tillerson would skip the NATO conference, said the secretary is expected to travel to Russia for meetings in Moscow and to Italy for a meeting of the G-7. Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon will attend the NATO meeting. The conference is scheduled at the same time as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with his U.S. counterpart at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Florida.


Tillerson’s absence from the event marks the first time a U.S. secretary of state will skip such a meeting since 2003, when Colin Powell decided at the last minute not to attend.

Tillerson, however, will attend a gathering of NATO foreign ministers on Wednesday.

"Secretary Tillerson will meet with NATO member country foreign ministers from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom when the Coalition to Defeat ISIS meets at the State Department," according to the State Department.

That the secretary of state is opting not to attend the NATO meeting could concern other member nations that the Trump administration is less than fully committed to the alliance. Throughout much of his campaign last year, the president was critical of NATO and questioned U.S. dedication to it, a position that irked not just other NATO allies but also politicians from both U.S. political parties.

Trump has since taken a more conventional, supportive stance on NATO but has urged other member states to increase their defense spending up to the required 2 percent of gross domestic product.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.