By Humeyra Pamuk and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the NATO meeting of heads of state that is taking place in Turkey in early July, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, providing a confirmation that will likely lead to a sigh of relief across the capitals of the alliance.
While American presidents almost always attend NATO summits given Washington is the leader of the alliance, questions were raised about Trump's attendance this year as he repeatedly expressed his anger with NATO over what he described as its reluctance to help the United States with the war in Iran.
Speaking at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Rubio touched upon Trump's frustrations, saying his main irritation was some members not allowing the U.S. to use the military bases in those countries at a time of crisis.
Despite his disappointment with the alliance, Trump will still be attending the gathering, Rubio told lawmakers.
"The United States is still in the NATO alliance, and we'll be there in Turkey to talk about all these topics. The president himself will be attending the next NATO meeting of heads of state, where all these points will be made clear," Rubio said.
Several NATO countries resisted supporting the U.S. military campaign against Iran by denying U.S. military planes use of their airspace or declining to send naval forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for energy tankers.
European leaders have rejected direct involvement in U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, wary of getting sucked into an unpredictable conflict whose aims they do not fully understand and is unpopular with their own citizens.
Trump has repeatedly called NATO a "paper tiger" and threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance earlier this year, arguing that Washington's European allies have relied on U.S. security guarantees while providing inadequate support for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran.
"I think the next meeting of NATO in Turkey in July is probably the most important meeting in NATO's history, because there are some things here that need to be cleared up and fixed," Rubio said.
The frequency of NATO summits has varied over the alliance's 77-year history but its leaders have met every summer since 2021 and will gather this year in the Turkish capital Ankara on July 7 and 8.
Reuters reported in late April that the alliance was considering ending its recent practice of holding annual summits in future, partly to help avoid a potentially tense encounter with Trump during his final year in office in 2028.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Andrea Ricci)
