Tillerson to skip first NATO meeting, head to Russia following week

By Anna Giaritelli
3/20/17 9:55 PM

State Sec. Rex Tillerson is expected to skip an April 5-6 NATO meeting with the group's 28 members to instead join President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a talk with Chinese President Xi JinPing, according to a report published Monday evening.

The Brussels meeting would have been Tillerson's first as the U.S. representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Tillerson is also planning a trip to Moscow in mid-April, which could irk U.S. allies who see it as Russia's needs being put above theirs.

"It feeds this narrative that somehow the Trump administration is playing footsy with Russia," one former U.S. official told Reuters. "You don't want to do your early business with the world's great autocrats. You want to start with the great democracies, and NATO is the security instrument of the transatlantic group of great democracies."
Tillerson has a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The former Exxon Mobil CEO worked with the Russian government for a number of years pushing for changes that would benefit the oil giant.

NATO was created in 1949 as a way of countering the influence of the Soviet Union, which could make Tillerson's not attending the inaugural meeting odd.

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