Rubio embarks on another mission to ease tensions with allies during NATO meeting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his latest mission to assuage nervous U.S. allies in Europe about the Trump administration’s intentions with NATO or at least put a friendlier face on whipsawing changes and uncertainty about American troop reductions.

Rubio will attend a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Sweden on Friday — the same day senior Pentagon officials are expected to brief the 32-nation alliance on plans for the U.S. military’s commitment to European defense at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

The meeting of diplomats, which precedes a NATO leaders’ summit in Turkey in July, comes amid great uncertainty over how the war in Iran will play out and whether stalled U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict will resume. Resentment also still simmers on the continent over President Donald Trump’s criticism of allies and his interest in taking over Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Rubio has often been called on to offer a calmer, less antagonistic presence from the Trump administration at meetings like these. He has been dispatched on several such missions this year, including the Munich Security Conference in February and, more recently, to Italy, where he met with Italian officials and Pope Leo XIV after Trump criticized the American pontiff for his stances on crime and the Iran war.

On his departure to the meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Rubio declined to discuss any further changes to the American military presence in Europe, including a possible reduction in the number of troops that the U.S. will commit under the NATO Force Model, which is a contingency plan for European defense in the event of serious security concerns.

The Trump administration had decided to cancel the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops to Poland and Germany, but then the president posted on social media Thursday that “the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland.”

It was not clear whether that meant the brigade that had been stopped from going to Poland would be back on its way, whether additional troops beyond that rotational deployment could be added, or whether there would still be a drawdown of U.S. troops in Europe, but from a different country. The Pentagon referred requests for comment to the White House, which did not immediately respond to messages seeking clarity.

Earlier, Rubio did repeat that Trump and others in the administration, including him, are “very disappointed” in NATO, especially in its response to the Iran war.

“I don’t think anyone is shocked to know that the United States, and the president in particular, is very disappointed at NATO right now,” he told reporters in Miami before boarding his plane.

Rubio said he was a “strong supporter” of the transatlantic military alliance and called it important. But he reiterated complaints that some NATO allies, notably Spain, had refused to allow access to U.S. bases for the Iran conflict and others had been reluctant, if not resistant, to join a coalition to reopen and protect the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route that Iran largely has closed.

“I know why NATO is good for Europe, but why is NATO good for America?” Rubio asked rhetorically, answering his own question by referring to bases that allow the U.S. and others to project power globally. “So, when that is the key rationale for why you’re in NATO, and then you have countries like Spain denying us the use of these bases, well, then, why are you in NATO?”

Rubio noted that nearly all NATO allies agree that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, but few, if any, stepped up when Trump said he would take action to prevent it.

“He’s not asking them to commit troops. He’s not asking them to send their fighter jets in. But they refuse to do anything, and so I think the president looks at that and says, ‘Hold on a second,’” Rubio said. “I think we were very upset about that. The president has made that very clear.”

NATO officials have downplayed the changes to U.S. troop levels in Europe, saying they have been long planned and do not come as a surprise.

Yet the announcements have blindsided some allies and came despite U.S. promises to coordinate military moves to avoid creating security gaps. Similarly, Trump's apparent change on Poland came as another surprise.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that U.S. allies have known for a year that the Trump administration would be withdrawing some troops from Europe, and it expects “rightly, for Europe and Canada to take a bigger responsibility for the conventional defense of NATO and particularly, of course, the European part of NATO.”

Rutte said the U.S. “will stay involved” but over time could pivot resources elsewhere in the world. U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, commander of both American and NATO forces in Europe, said this week that security in Europe would not be compromised but warned that allies should expect more drawdowns in the coming years.

The Trump administration has warned that Europe would have to look after its own security, including Ukraine’s, in the future.

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Thursday, May 21, 2026. Rubio is traveling to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives with his wife Jeanette at Malmo Airport, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Malmo-Sturup, Sweden, ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves as he boards a US government aircraft after concluding his two-day visit to Italy and the Vatican, at Ciampino airport in Rome, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Stefano Rellandini/Pool Photo via AP)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Thursday, May 21, 2026. Rubio is traveling to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Thursday, May 21, 2026. Rubio is traveling to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Thursday, May 21, 2026. Rubio is traveling to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Thursday, May 21, 2026. Rubio is traveling to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — It was a classic husband's phone call. He was done for the day and would stop at the market before coming home. But he was returning from war, not work.

Fahmy al-Fateh never made it home. His wife, Azaher Abdallah, started calling friends and family, then turned to his colleagues in Sudan 's army. Her husband was last seen leaving a military base in the capital, Khartoum, on a motorcycle. That was over a year ago.

Now the couple's 3-year-old son shouts at every passing motorcycle, thinking it's his father, Abdallah said.

“He was the most precious thing in my life," she said, sobbing and burying her face in her hands. “I would feel more at peace if I knew something. It’s better than not knowing what happened to him, whether he's alive or dead.”

Her husband is one of more than 8,000 people who have gone missing during Sudan's three years of war, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The conflict has torn families apart. People have been separated while fleeing, or gone missing during fighting. Others are quietly detained, leaving friends and relatives in agony trying to learn their fate.

Many of those missing in Khartoum state are thought to be in unmarked graves where tens of thousands of bodies have been found since Sudan's army retook the capital last year from paramilitary fighters.

It was often too dangerous to bury bodies in cemeteries while fighting raged. People dug graves wherever they could.

Driving through the city last month, Associated Press reporters saw soccer fields and cemeteries overflowing with the dead. Mounds of dirt beside a defunct gas station had makeshift signs with names and dates, but many were unmarked.

A member of the military media accompanied the AP during the visit, including during interviews. The AP retains full editorial control of its content.

The ICRC said it had resolved over 1,000 cases of the missing but would not say how many were alive or dead.

Abdallah was sleeping when her husband left the house before sunrise last January. Al-Fateh, a 38-year-old farmer and merchant, had joined Sudan's army when the war began. That day, he was helping to retake Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Since then, the 30-year-old Abdallah has combed the city, visited hospital morgues and asked the army for help. Her husband's unit said they'd try to find him. If she didn't hear anything, they said, consider him missing.

At home on the outskirts of Khartoum, she scrolls through photos of him in uniform, still believing that one day he'll return.

“That is what my heart tells me," she said.

Psychologists say the uncertainty surrounding missing loved ones can cause years of profound distress.

“Families of missing persons experience additional layers of vulnerabilities due to hostilities, displacement and ambiguous loss,” said Nathalie Nyamukeba, a psychologist with the ICRC.

Some families in Sudan say the only way to deal with it is to keep searching.

Sulafa Mustafa's son went missing two years ago. A shy boy, 18-year-old Suleiman Abdalsid went to a friend’s house near Khartoum and never came home.

His mother tirelessly traveled through the streets, even as the sounds of shelling echoed, going door to door. She has visited hospitals and prisons, and showed countless strangers his photo.

She has even rented a microphone to shout his name.

“I haven’t lost faith in finding you,” she said, and covered her face with her hands.

Finding people alive or dead is challenging in Sudan, especially as the war continues. Labs that could have been used for DNA testing have been destroyed, and few forensic specialists remain.

In Khartoum state, authorities have moved nearly 30,000 bodies — of some 50,000 — that had been hastily buried near houses, in sports fields or by the road when the RSF controlled the area. Their work continues.

About 10% of bodies that have been reburied are unidentified.

Hisham Zienalabdien, director general of the forensic medicine department for Khartoum state, said they are saving DNA from unidentified bodies in hopes of one day being able to match it with relatives.

For families who have found loved ones but can't properly bury them, there is a different kind of pain.

Abubakar Alswai waited more than a year to move his 73-year-old brother, Mohamed, from where he had been buried in front of his house into a public cemetery.

The RSF had killed Mohamed but waited three weeks before granting a neighbor permission to bury his bullet-hit and decomposing remains. In Islamic tradition, largely followed in Sudan, funerals take place as quickly as possible, ideally within 24 hours.

Alswai wiped tears from his cheeks as he watched grave diggers remove his brother's remains. At least now Mohamed will get the dignified burial he deserves, he said, and his family will have some peace.

“What happened had left a mark on my heart," he said.

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A shirt belonging to Suleiman Abdelsaid, who went missing in 2024 at age 18, is displayed on a bed at his family home in Omdurman, Sudan, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Azaher Abdallah, who has been searching for her husband, Fahani Al Fateh, for over a year, becomes emotional during an interview with The Associated Press in Omdurman, Sudan, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Sulafa Mustafa shows a photograph of her missing son, Suleiman Abdelsaid, in Omdurman, Sudan, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A computer screen displays a record of an unidentified body in the missing persons database at Al Nao Hospital in Omdurman, Sudan, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Staff from Sudan's Forensic Medicine Corporation exhume the body of Mohammed Alsawi, 73, who was killed in 2023 by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, in Omdurman, Sudan, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)