Tillerson’s diplomatic efforts increasingly overshadowed as Europe rift widens
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday wrapped up a five-day visit to three European nations, which, experts said, was unlikely to heal the expanding trans-Atlantic rifts on the relevant regional and global issues.
The absence of any summary of the tour, which took him to Brussels, Vienna and Paris, and which is the seventh of its kind since Tillerson took office in February, also indicated the fruitlessness of the visit, said experts.
The tour, which aims to ease the rising tensions between Washington and Brussels, had been overshadowed before it even started by rumors of Trump’s possible Jerusalem-related decision later.
After Trump made the highly controversial announcement on Wednesday, in which he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the US Embassy in the country to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Tillerson spent most of his remaining tour peddling Trump’s justification to upset European allies.
Bilateral grudges were also detonated by Trump’s retweeting of anti-Muslim posts, as British Prime Minister Theresa May, among other European leaders, said Trump’s posts were “wrong,” and Trump later snapped by suggesting May should focus on her country’s own security.
Brussels, already upset about Trump’s explicit support of Brexit, has made the bilateral rifts public in the face of Tillerson.
In a joint statement to the media with her US counterpart, the European Union (EU) High Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini noted that the bloc believes any action that would undermine the peace-making efforts between Palestine and Israel “must absolutely be avoided.”
On the Iran nuclear deal, she also rebuffed the US stance by saying that the continued implementation of the Iran nuclear deal is a key strategic priority for European security but also for regional and global security.
“Now dismantling an agreement on nuclear issues that is working ... would not put us in a better position to discuss all the rest on the country,” she said, referring to Trump’s October decertification of the landmark deal that helps ease the nuclear tension in the Middle East and beyond.
The divergence on values was evident, as Mogherini said Brussels “is and remains a strong and reliable supporter of multilateralism, UN system, and a rules-based global order,” with barely no mention of the US concerns over Ukraine and North Korea.
Darrell West of the Brookings Institution told Xinhua that Europeans are “crosspressured” as Trump’s abrupt moves and rhetoric made it difficult to “get touch on Russia,” which Brussels took as one of its most imminent threats.
“Trump has made the relationship worse with his embrace of ultra-nationalism and rude behavior toward US allies. If that continues, it will cause the US and the EU to drift further apart,” he added.
Some European leaders have showed “consternation” about Trump’s tweets, “but for others, they have found a kindred populist and nationalist in the White House,” said Dan Mahaffee, vice president and director of policy at the US Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency.
“Many look to comments from other administration officials to confirm the US commitment to NATO and willingness to confront Russia ... The perception of disunity and the focus of both the US and the EU on internal politics are not the best signal to be sending on a tumultuous global stage,” he said.