U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Brussels next week for the annual NATO foreign ministers meeting and also make stops in Great Britain, Italy, Finland, and Denmark, the State Department announced Monday. Rice “will travel to London, Brussels, Rome, Helsinki, and Copenhagen from November 30th to December 5th,” spokesman Sean McCormack said. “In London, Secretary Rice will meet with Foreign Secretary David Milliband,” McCormack told reporters. “She will then travel to Brussels to participate in the annual formal meeting of NATO foreign ministers on December 2nd and 3rd.” Rice will visit Rome for talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, McCormack said. She will head to Helsinki to participate in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial meeting on December 4 and to meet with Finnish officials. “The secretary's final stop will be Copenhagen, where she will have meetings with Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen and Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller,” McCormack said. With the Bush administration leaving office on January 20, Rice trip to Europe could be her last as the top U.S. diplomat.
