Foreign ministers from NATO's 29 member countries are meeting for a second day in Washington to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary and discuss security threats, including Russia and Afghanistan.
The foreign ministers were scheduled on April 4 to hold a series of meetings at the headquarters of the U.S. State Department, with the first session focusing on Russia.
The ministers were expected to endorse a set of measures aimed at improving NATO's defenses in the Black Sea region.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to attend the sessions and host a working lunch with the visiting ministers. He planned to hold a press conference later in the day.
Washington says the agenda also includes briefing on the situation in Afghanistan, the demise of an arms-control treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the last years of the Cold War, and NATO-member Turkey's purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on April 4 that the two-day gathering in Washington shows that NATO "has no intention of abandoning plans to step up military and political confrontation with Russia."
