Authors: Map – Jędrzej Błaszczak, Analysis – Jakub Graca Data collection – Paweł Gawryluk Translation – Dominik Wereszko
During his first year in office, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made a total of ten foreign trips: four to Europe, three to Indo-Pacific countries, two to the Latin America and Caribbean region, and one to the Middle East. During the latter, he only accompanied Donald Trump on his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates; similarly, on one of the four trips to Europe, he traveled alongside Trump to the NATO summit in The Hague. 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.
Furthermore, the Secretary of Defense hosted representatives (mainly his counterparts, but not only them) from many allied and partner countries in Washington, while conducting remaining conversations via phone/electronically. Due to the flawed information policy of the Trump administration, one must consider the possibility that information about some of the conversations may not have been made public.
Although the publicly disclosed number of Hegseth’s meetings and conversations with representatives of Latin American countries does not reflect this, the region is a priority for Washington in light of the latest US strategic documents. Regarding this area, the April visit to Panama was the most important (the US is still working on securing its interests in the Panama Canal, including by ousting the Hong Kong conglomerate CH Hutchinson from there).
Regarding the Indo-Pacific direction, it is worth mentioning all three trips: the first in March 2025 to the US island of Guam, the Philippines, and Japan; the second in May to the prestigious annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore (on the sidelines of which many bilateral and multilateral meetings with representatives of regional countries took place); and the third at the turn of October and November to Malaysia on the occasion of the ASEAN defense ministers’ meeting (where, similar to Singapore, there was an opportunity to hold a series of talks). Hegseth flew to Kuala Lumpur straight from Japan, where he accompanied Trump on his bilateral visit, and after leaving Malaysia, he also went to Vietnam and South Korea (this was Hegseth’s first meeting with his South Korean counterpart). In the context of the Indo-Pacific, the 2+2 ministerial consultations with Australia held in Washington in December and the meeting of AUKUS defense ministers also deserve attention. However, there have been no 2+2 consultations with India since 2023.
It is also impossible to overlook Hegseth’s two conversations with his counterpart from the People’s Republic of China. The first of them took place over the phone in September and was primarily introductory in nature, serving to mutually communicate basic interests (based on the statement of the American side). The second, however, took place on October 31 in Malaysia, a day after Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea, and was more specific – according to Hegseth, the issue of creating military communication channels for de-escalation in emergency situations was discussed, among other things (such channels already exist, but it is likely about improving them).
In the context of the European segment, which in light of the new US National Security Strategy is only third on the list of priority directions, one should mention the three meetings of NATO defense ministers in Brussels (in February, June, and October 2025) and the Alliance summit in The Hague at the end of June. During the February trip, Hegseth also visited the US EUCOM and AFRICOM commands located in Germany, as well as Poland, which to this day remains the only European country where Hegseth has made a bilateral visit.
In the Middle East, Hegseth made only one visit alongside Trump, during which, among other things, a declaration of intent was signed by Saudi Arabia to purchase US weaponry for an amount of approximately 142 billion dollars, and the US elevation of the United Arab Emirates to the role of a “Major Defense Partner” in 2024 was confirmed. Despite having made only one delegation to the Middle East, Hegseth met multiple times with representatives of countries from this region during their visits to Washington and held phone consultations with them. This is understandable given the fact that the US has conducted a series of military operations in the region over the past year (primarily against Houthi militants in Yemen and against Iran).
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