Pompeo: US shaping new ‘liberal’ order to block Russia, China, Iran
Secretary of state says Trump ready to support democracies, prosperity
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State promised on Tuesday a new democratic world order, in which Washington will strengthen or jettison international agreements as it sees fit to stop “bad actors” such as Russia, China and Iran.
Pompeo said that Trump was not abandoning its global leadership, but instead reshaping the post-World War II system on the basis of sovereign states, not multilateral institutions.
“In the finest traditions of our great democracy, we are rallying the noble nations to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity,” Pompeo told diplomats and officials in a foreign policy speech.
“We are acting to preserve, protect, and advance an open, just, transparent and free world of sovereign states,” Pompeo said, adding that China’s ability to gain from the current system of trade was an example of “the poisoned fruits of American retreat.”
Pompeo said that the US President was also pushing both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stop funding countries such as China, arguing they already have access to financial markets to raise capital.
Pompeo said Trump was reforming the liberal order, not destroying it. He cited Britain’s decision to quit the European Union as a sign that supranational organizations are not working.
He also took aim at bureaucrats responsible for upholding multilateralism “as an end in itself,” and cast doubt on the EU’s commitment to its citizens.
This drew a rebuke from the European Commission, whose chief spokesman offered an explanation of how the EU executive is subject to control by citizens via the directly elected European Parliament and by the governments of member states.
“So for those people who come to Brussels and coin an opinion without knowing how our system works, that’s how our system works. And that’s our reply,” Margaritis Schinas said.
Pompeo’s speech marks the latest attempt by a Trump official to place the president’s decisions into a coherent policy plan, after visits to Brussels by the US Vice President and other senior officials.
European leaders think that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Accord and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal could undermine European priorities.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned of “the rule of the jungle” replacing the rule of law.
Pompeo disagreed and said the US was acting with global interests in mind.
“Our administration is ... lawfully exiting or renegotiating outdated or harmful treaties, trade agreements, and other international arrangements that don’t serve our sovereign interests, or the interest of our allies,” he said.
The NATO alliance is expected later to declare Russia in formal breach of a nuclear arms control treaty, paving the way for Trump to withdraw from the Cold Warera agreement.
NATO’s European allies have pressed the US President not to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Moscow, signed in 1987, but rather to work to bring Russia to compliance with the pact.
However, diplomats said they are trying to limit the fallout of the decision by staggering the expected US withdrawal into next year, and by first formally accusing Russia of breaking the INF agreement, which rid Europe of land-based nuclear missiles. Russia denies violation of the pact.