US absent from NATO civilian protection summit after Pentagon programme cuts
The International Contact Group is meeting in Brussels without the United States, which helped establish the forum in 2023.
An international forum on protecting civilians during combat is meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels without the United States listed as a participant.
The two-day summit of the International Contact Group on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response is discussing civilian protection in coalition and maritime operations. A closed-door session is scheduled for senior representatives from member states.
The United States and the Netherlands formed the informal coalition in 2023. According to ProPublica, the group continued meeting under British and Dutch leadership after the US stopped participating. Previous participants included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway.
The Pentagon adopted its civilian harm mitigation and response framework in 2022, following civilian casualty controversies arising from the post-9/11 wars. The framework called for a specialised centre to collect strike data and advisers embedded with regional commands.
ProPublica reported that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismantled the Pentagon’s civilian protection mission, with staffing falling from nearly 200 to about two dozen. The Defence Department declined to comment specifically on US attendance at the Brussels talks, while previously saying it remained committed to its civilian harm mitigation and response responsibilities.
NATO has its own civilian protection policy and is incorporating elements of the US framework. The exact level of any US participation in the summit remained uncertain in ProPublica’s reporting, which anticipated either no delegation or a possible command-level representative.
