Pompeo urges Nato to push US agenda
Alliance tells Russia to withdraw troops from Venezuela, approves measures to back Ukraine, Georgia
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday called on its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) to adapt to emerging threats as it pushed the US agenda in the transatlantic military alliance.
During a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Washington marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance that was formed in 1949 for fear of attack by Russia or Germany.
Spectrum of issues
“We must adapt our alliance to confront emerging threats … whether that’s Russian aggression, uncontrolled migration, cyber attacks, threats to energy security, Chinese strategic competition, including technology and 5G, and many other issues,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo said after the meeting that Nato members had agreed Russian troops needed to withdraw from Venezuela, almost 8,000 kilometers from the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
Still Russophobic
Pompeo said Venezuela was raised during discussions on ways to respond to Moscow’s increased foreign military activity in places such as the Black Sea, where Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels last November.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the Nato allies had agreed on a package of measures to step up support for Ukraine and Georgia, including increased surveillance drills and “training of maritime forces and coast guards, port visits and exercises, and sharing information.”
Ukraine and Georgia, which like Ukraine is a Russian neighbor and part of the former Soviet Union, are not Nato members although they are recognized as aspiring members.
Stoltenberg said Russia’s breach of the 1987 Intermediaterange Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was part of a “pattern of destabilizing behavior.”
Stoltenberg said Nato’s response would be “measured and coordinated” and “not mirror what Russia is doing.”
“We have no intention of deploying ground-launched nuclear missiles in Europe,” he said.
Pompeo also called on Nato to confront increased cyber warfare from China and resumed the US vilification of Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies, which Washington accuses of spying for Beijing.
Washington has been at odds on the Huawei issue with the European Union, which has shunned US calls to ban the company across the bloc. The bulk of Nato members are EU countries.
No more data sharing
Pompeo warned that the United States would no longer share information with Nato allies if there were Chinese systems in their security networks.
“We have made clear that if the risks exceed the threshold for the United States, we simply won’t be able to share that information any longer,” he said.
The United States has also been at odds with European countries over their failure to meet Nato defense spending guidelines of 2 percent of gross domestic product.
US President Donald Trump has called on Nato countries to pay even more than 2 percent of their GDP for defense and has singled out Germany for not doing enough.
Not US puppets
Stoltenberg said Germany was now making progress, but all allies needed to do more.
“All Nato allies made a pledge to invest more in defense to improve burden sharing in our alliance, and I expect all allies, including Germany, of course, to make good on the pledge we made together,” he said.
“We didn’t make this pledge to please the United States. We made it because we live in a more unpredictable and uncertain world.”