NATO allies to sound out US top diplomat after Trump Iran ire NATO’s European members will look to sound out US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on troop cuts by Washington Friday, as they seek to smooth over President Donald Trump’s ire ahead of a July summit. The meeting of alliance foreign ministers in the Swedish city of Helsingborg comes after the US leader lashed out at Europe over its response to his war on Iran — and threatened he could consider quitting NATO. The
77-year-old alliance was rattled this month when Washington abruptly announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany after a spat between Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz. While the Trump administration had long warned it would pull out forces from Europe to focus on other threats, a lack of coordination has heightened concern over Washington’s reliability in the face of a menacing Russia. One of the goals in Helsingborg “is to see whether we’ve turned the page or not ahead of the Ankara summit,” a European
diplomat said.
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