Department of State Press Briefing, March 31, 2025: Rubio's NATO Trip and Fallen Soldiers in Lithuania

Name: "Department of State Press Briefing, March 31, 2025: Rubio's NATO Trip and Fallen Soldiers in Lithuania"
Uploaded: 2025-03-31
Duration: 39 min 24 s
Description: "Department of State Spokesperson Tammy Bruce led the March 31, 2025, press briefing, announcing Secretary Rubio's April 2–4 trip to Brussels for the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting and reporting that three of four missing U.S. Army soldiers in Lithuania had been found deceased, according to the Department of State broadcast."

March 31, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:39:24

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Department of State Spokesperson Tammy Bruce led the department’s press briefing on March 31, 2025, according to the Department of State broadcast. Bruce announced, as she stated the itinerary, that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would travel to Brussels, Belgium, from April 2 to April 4 to attend the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, discussing security priorities for the Alliance including increased Allied defense investment and securing lasting peace in Ukraine, the shared threat of China at a session with Indo-Pacific partners, and plans for The Hague Summit that summer. She also reported, as she stated it, the tragic news from Lithuania that three of the four U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, had been found deceased that day, offering the department’s deepest sympathy to the soldiers’ families.

In the question period, Bruce said, as she stated it, that everything happening in Gaza is happening because of Hamas, and that all of it could stop in a moment if Hamas returned all the hostages and the hostage bodies it still holds and put down its weapons — a position she said fuels Secretary Rubio and President Trump, as she stated it. The briefing also took questions, as the broadcast records, on deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members and other matters, and closed with announcements including an awards ceremony whose honorees would join an International Visitor Leadership Program exchange.

Why it matters

The briefing pairs a forward-looking alliance announcement — Rubio’s first NATO foreign ministers trip, with its stated agenda — with the department’s same-day accounting of the Lithuania training deaths, as stated by its spokesperson.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Department of State Press Briefing - March 31, 2025”, 2025-03-31 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-03-31). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.