Analysis: Jakub Graca; data collection: Paweł Gawryluk graphic design: Natalia Matiaszczyk
During his first six months in office, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made five foreign trips as head of delegations (twice to Europe, twice to Indo-Pacific countries, and once to Panama) and accompanied Donald Trump on his visit to the Middle East (to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates). According to unofficial information, Hegseth’s planned visit to Israel was canceled due to Trump’s Middle East trip taking place at the same time. In addition, the Secretary of Defense met with representatives (mainly his counterparts) from many allied and partner countries in Washington.
The visits to Europe were particularly important. The first, which we described in one of our earlier articles, took place in Brussels, Germany, and Poland, and was the first opportunity for the Secretary of Defense to meet personally with NATO allies and communicate the new US administration’s position on security. The second visit was again to Brussels, where another meeting of Alliance defense ministers was held on June 5 (the last such meeting before the NATO summit in The Hague), at which the so-called capability targets that each ally should contribute to NATO’s common defense capabilities pool were approved. However, Hegseth did not attend the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group held on the same day. A day later, the defense secretary visited France, where he participated in the annual celebrations in Normandy commemorating the Allied landings there in 1944.
Hegseth’s two visits to Indo-Pacific countries should also not be underestimated. During the first of these, at the end of March, the Secretary of Defense visited Hawaii, the US island of Guam, Japan, and the Philippines. South Korea was omitted, but this was due to the tense political situation in that country, which arose as a result of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial law in December 2024. In Guam, Hegseth met with Micronesian President Wesley Simina. As a result of the talks, it was announced that the United States would invest in the expansion of aviation and port infrastructure in Yap, one of the four states that make up Micronesia. In Tokyo and Manila, Hegseth reaffirmed the importance of the US-Japan and US-Philippines alliances. In both cases, plans were announced to increase deterrence capabilities by improving existing command systems (in the case of Japan) and deploying new military capabilities (in the case of the Philippines).
Hegseth’s second trip to the Indo-Pacific region took place at the end of May, when the Secretary of Defense attended the prestigious Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore, which is held annually at the same location. In his speech, he outlined the new US administration’s policy towards the Indo-Pacific region: among other things, he assured that Washington is interested in its presence in the region and that one of its goals is to deter Beijing’s aggression. Behind the scenes, he spoke with representatives (mainly his counterparts) from numerous countries in the region. The meetings took place in various formats, including bilateral meetings with representatives of Australia and Vietnam, trilateral meetings with representatives of Australia and Japan, quadrilateral meetings with Australia, the Philippines, and Japan, and multilateral meetings with representatives of ASEAN countries. Once again, there was no meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho, who did not fly to Singapore due to political turmoil in Seoul. The only opportunity for contact between the two politicians in the last six months was a telephone conversation at the end of January.
Defense contacts with the Arabian Peninsula countries, which are important recipients of US weapons, are of significant importance. During Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where Hegseth was also present, a declaration of intent was signed for Riyadh to purchase weapons from the US for a total of approximately $142 billion. In Qatar, the defense secretary visited Al-Udeid, the largest US military base in the Middle East—the same one that was shelled by Iran in late June in response to US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. In the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon confirmed President Joe Biden’s 2024 decision to elevate Abu Dhabi to the role of a “Major Defense Partner” and declared a mutual willingness to develop cooperation in areas such as military technical innovation.
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