President Donald Trump committed to several foreign trips throughout the summer of 2017, his first trips abroad as president.
Trump will attend the next NATO alliance in Brussels in May, the G-7 summit in Italy in late-May, the G-20 summit in Germany in July, and accepted an invitation from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Great Britain for a state visit, with a date yet to be determined.
Trump may face criticism at his visit to NATO, after occasionally questioning the efficacy of the organization. He called the alliance “obsolete” just days before taking office to a German publication, and hammered the allies throughout the campaign for failing to live up to their spending commitments.
Despite his campaign rhetoric Trump expressed the “strong commitment” of the U.S. to NATO in a Sunday call with NATO Secretary General Jans Stoltenberg. British Prime Minister Theresa May similarly said Trump told her the U.S. was “100 percent behind NATO” after she visited Trump at The White House Jan. 27.
Trump’s visit to Germany for the G-20 summit will also offer him his first likely chance to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former President Barack Obama frequently used the G-20 conferences to confer with Putin on the sidelines, and conduct side talks unrelated to the conference.
Obama by contrast visited Canada for his first foreign trip, and followed it with a trip to the United Kingdom.
The announcement comes amid a busy schedule of meetings for the new president, who will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday. Abe’s visit will be followed by a state visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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