That would mark the second consecutive time a senior official from President Donald Trump’s administration has skipped a meeting of the Western military alliance, the Reuters news agency reported.
It cited two sources it did not name—a US official and a NATO diplomat—as saying that Hegseth would miss the February 12 meeting at NATO headquarters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not attend the alliance’s foreign ministers' meeting in December.
The sources did not give a reason for Hegseth’s expected absence, and the Pentagon and NATO had no immediate comment, Reuters reported.
Until Trump’s second term, it was highly unusual for a US Cabinet official to skip a NATO ministers' meeting, according to Reuters.
Relations within the alliance have been strained by tensions between Trump and European allies, most recently over his desire to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of fellow NATO member Denmark.
Speaking on Wednesday before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said NATO needs to be "reimagined" because of imbalances in defense spending.
He rejected criticism from Democrats that the Trump administration was undermining the alliance.
"One of the things we’ve explained to our allies in NATO is the United States is not simply focused on Europe," he said.
"We also have defense needs in the Western Hemisphere. We have defense needs in the Indo-Pacific. We may be the richest country in the world, but we don’t have unlimited resources," he added.
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Source: Reuters, IAR, PAP