The US State Department confirmed that Washington had proposed new dates for a NATO meeting, after Tillerson decided to skip the original talks and rebuffed efforts to reschedule them.

The most senior US diplomat will be replaced by his deputy at the NATO meeting on April 5 and 6 in Brussels, while Tillerson remains at home to attend talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Tillerson is also due to visit Moscow in April.

Germany's NATO missions Germany's role in NATO West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.

Germany's NATO missions Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.

Germany's NATO missions Keeping the peace in Kosovo Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.

Germany's NATO missions Patrolling the Aegean Sea In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Germany's NATO missions More than a decade in Afghanistan In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Nearly a thousand soldiers are still deployed in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support.

Germany's NATO missions German tanks in Lithuania Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania so far in 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defence in a generation," according to NATO.

Germany's NATO missions Taking over the leadership The Bundeswehr is due to take over leadership of NATO's multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) at the start of 2019. The rapid reaction force has been set up to counter potential Russian aggression on the alliance's eastern flank. Author: Lewis Sanders IV



The decision not to attend immediately led to new concerns about US President Donald Trump's loyalty to NATO, which Washington was quick to allay.

"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.

Tillerson will meet European ministers

The State Department insisted Tillerson will meet most NATO foreign ministers at an anti-"Islamic State" (IS) conference later this week, adding that the decision was not unprecedented, and that former secretaries of state had missed the April meeting in 2003 and 1999.

The military alliance had offered to change the meeting dates so Tillerson could attend both it and the Xi talks, but the US State Department rebuffed the idea, a former U.S. official and a former NATO diplomat, both speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency on Monday.

Europe alarmed

The timing of the announcement has unnerved some European allies, particularly in the former Soviet bloc, who are dealing with a more assertive Russia.

During his election campaign, Trump described NATO as "obsolete" but has toned down his rhetoric since taking office in January, saying he strongly supports the alliance.

Tillerson will be in Florida next month as Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets US President Donald Trump

The snub came just a few days after Trump claimed on Twitter that Germany owes "vast sums of money to NATO and the United States," following his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.

While NATO officials in Brussels on Tuesday played down the snub, former US diplomats expressed concern at the message Tillerson is sending.

"I think it is a mistake," Ivo Daalder, ex-US ambassador to NATO, told DW. "The idea that a secretary of state should skip a NATO ministerial (meeting) is remarkable, indeed it is almost unprecedented."

Another former ambassador to NATO, Harvard professor Nicholas Burns, told the Agence France-Presse news agency: "Of course Secretary Tillerson should be at the NATO meeting. We are the leader of NATO and should meet with allies before Russia."

Late on Wednesday, the White House said Trump would attend a separate meeting of NATO heads of state in Brussels in May.

Tillerson moves on Montenegro

Meanwhile, Tillerson has written to US Senate leaders urging them to ratify Montenegro as NATO's newest member, saying it is "strongly in the interests of the United States."

The Reuters news agency cited a letter, dated March 7, arguing that the former Yugoslav state would support greater integration, security and stability among its neighbors.

Montenegro hopes to win the required approval of all 28 NATO allies in time to become a full member at a summit in May.

Watch video 00:45 Trump: Germany owes 'vast sums' for NATO

mm/gsw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)