Data collection: Paweł Gawryluk ; Maps: Natalia Matiaszczyk ; Text: Jakub Graca
During the first six months of office, the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made 5 abroad trips as the leader of the delegation (twice to Europe, twice to the Indo-Pacific States and erstwhile to Panama) and accompanied Donald Trump in his visit to the mediate East (in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United arabian Emirates). According to unofficial information, Hegseth's planned visit to Israel was cancelled due to Trump's mediate East expedition taking place at the same time. In addition, the Secretary of defence made representatives (mainly his counterparts) from many alliance and partner countries in Washington.
Visiting Europe was peculiarly important. The first, which we described in 1 of the earlier texts, was laid down in Brussels, Germany and Poland and was the first chance for the Secretary of defence to meet personally with NATO allies and communicate to them the position of the fresh American administration in the area of security. The second afraid Brussels again, where another gathering was held on 5 June of the Defence Ministers of the States of the Alliance (the last specified gathering before the NATO summit in The Hague) which approved the alleged capacity targets that each ally should bring to the NATO's common defence capacity pool. However, Hegseth did not attend the Ukrainian defence Contact Group gathering held on the same day. A day later, the Secretary of defence visited France, where he participated in the yearly celebrations of the Allied troops landing in Normandy in 1944.
There are besides 2 Hegseth visits to the Indo-Pacific countries that cannot be overestimated. During the first one, in late March, the Secretary of defence visited Hawaii, the US-owned island of Guam, Japan, and the Philippines. South Korea was left out, however, as a consequence of the tense political situation in that country as a consequence of president Yoon Suk Yeola's martial law in December 2024. On Guam Hegseth met with Micronesia president Wesley Simina. As a consequence of the conversation, it was announced that the United States would invest in the expansion of the aircraft and port infrastructure in the state of Yap, 1 of the 4 forming part of Micronesia. In Tokyo and Manila Hegseth confirmed the importance of the American-Japanese and American-Philippine alliance. In both cases, plans were announced to increase the possible for deterrence by improving existing command systems (for Japan) and deploy fresh military capabilities (for the Philippines).
Hegsetha's second journey to the Indo-Pacific region took place in late May, erstwhile the Secretary of defence attended the prestigious Shangri-La dialog conference in Singapore, which is held annually in the same place. In his speech, he outlined the fresh US administration's policy towards the Indo-Pacific region: among others, he assured Washington's interest in his presence in the region and assured that 1 of its objectives was to deter Beijing's aggression. In the Kuluara, he spoke to representatives (mostly his counterparts) from many countries of the region. Meetings were held in various formats including: bilateral with representatives of Australia or Vietnam, tripartite with representatives of Australia and Japan, four-sided with Australia, Philippines or Japan or multilateral with representatives of ASEAN countries. There was again a deficiency of gathering with South Korean defence minister Kim Seon-ho, who, due to political perturbations in Seoul, did not come to Singapore. The only chance to contact both politicians in the last six months was a late January telephone call.
Defence contacts with the arabian Peninsula countries, which are crucial recipients of U.S. weapons, are important. During Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, where Hegseth was also, a declaration of willingness to acquisition weapons from the U.S. for a sum of about $142 billion was signed. In Qatar, the Secretary of defence visited the largest U.S. military base in the mediate East Al-Udeid, the same 1 that was shelled by Iran at the end of June in consequence to US raids on Iranian atomic installations. In the United arabian Emirates, the Pentagon confirmed president Joe Biden's 2024 elevation of Abu Dhabi to the function of 1 of the "major defence partners" (Major defence Partner) and a common will was declared to make cooperation among others in the field of military method innovations.
