Hillary Clinton to kick off European tour

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will kick off a four-nation European tour next Monday, her 38th and maybe last visit to the continent before she leaves the top American diplomatic post, the State Department said Thursday. The focus of the five-day trip, which will take Clinton to the Czech Republic, Belgium, Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland, will be in the Belgian capital of Brussels, where she is scheduled to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers to discuss current security challenges in the West Balkan region and NATO's global partnerships. NATO foreign ministers will also meet with their counterparts from Russia and Georgia as well as representatives of non-NATO partners in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and of the Afghan government, the department said. The status of the joint Afghan/ISAF transition plan and NATO's post-2014 mission in Afghanistan will be discussed, it said in a statement. American and NATO forces are mapping out details about a drawdown of most of their combat troops from Afghanistan and handing over security responsibility to the Afghan security forces by the end of 2014. During her stay in Brussels on Dec. 4-5, Clinton will also co-chair the fourth meeting of the U.S.-European Union Energy Council to deepen cooperation on energy security and conservation, the State Department said. While in Dublin, capital of Ireland, she will participate in a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to discuss proposals to strengthen the group's capacity to promote comprehensive security in Eurasia and meet with civil society representatives from across the OSCE region, the department said. Addressing an event on Thursday at the Brookings Institute think tank in Washington, Clinton said making her 38th visit to Europe as secretary is something she has been "delighted to do" due to the importance of the transatlantic ties.