U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to go to Italy in April where he will attend a conference of G7 foreign ministers.
After Italy he will visit Russia, the Department of State said on March 21. A spokesman also told TASS Tillerson would speak to the foreign ministers of almost all member-states of NATO as part of the contacts between members of the U.S.-led antiterrorist coalition fighting with the Islamic State military grouping.
The coalition members would have a meeting at the Department of State. Tillerson has already spoken to Ukrainian representatives, the spokesman said. As for a conference of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on April 5-6, the U.S. will delegate there the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tom Shannon.
Reuters quoted unnamed U.S. officials earlier as saying Tillerson would skip the NATO meeting so as to be able to take part in the talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who would be visiting Washington at the same time.