Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pence embraces NATO, but is silent on EU

Seeks to reassure skeptical Europeans

- By Michael Birnbaum and Ashley Parker

The Washington Post

MUNICH — Invoking the name of President Donald Trump but not his rhetoric, Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday sought to reassure Europeans of Washington’s robust commitment to transatlan­tic defense, even as Europe searched for clarity in the contradict­ory statements coming from the new U.S. administra­tion.

Mr. Pence told a skeptical audience at the Munich Security Conference that Europeans should rest assured that Washington’s fundamenta­l foreign policy direction was not changing. In a speech that touched on military sacrifice, God and an unwavering faith in the power of shared values, Mr. Pence offered the fullest outline from the Trump administra­tion on internatio­nal policy since the beginning of the turbulent term nearly a month ago.

“Today, tomorrow and every day hence, be confident that the United States is now and will always be your greatest ally,” Mr. Pence said in his red-blooded speech, which was met with only a smattering of applause. “Be assured: President Trump and the American people are fully devoted to our transatlan­tic union.”

But allies were left trying to resolve Mr. Pence’s rhetoric with that of his boss, who routinely upends the statements of subordinat­es and has equated Russia’s human rights record with that of the United States, declared NATO obsolete and ferociousl­y torn into judges, reporters and others who have crossed him.

The lack of mention of the European Union, whose unraveling Mr. Trump has praised, also unsettled European leaders. Mr. Pence travels to Brussels on Sunday for meetings with senior EU officials.

U.S. officials in Europe this week, including Mr. Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, focused on an issue that has been a bipartisan concern in Washington, that of Europe’s lackluster defense spending, rather than Mr. Trump’s desire for a new relationsh­ip with the Kremlin, a major fear in Europe.

The mixed messages reassured some allies and unsettled others. Some leaders proposed that Europe respond by embracing their own strength and turning away from the United States to stand alone in the world — what one diplomat semiseriou­sly called an effort to “Make Europe Great Again.”

But the EU is riven by internal conflicts of its own, and officials said a true European declaratio­n of independen­ce is most likely a non-starter. Instead, there was acknowledg­ment from German Chancellor Angela Merkel on down that Europe is reliant on the United States to fight internatio­nal terrorism and will never be able to go it alone.

“The challenges of this world today cannot be mastered by one state alone. It needs a cooperativ­e effort. We need to forge ahead with multilater­al structures. We have to strengthen them,” Ms. Merkel said in a speech that she delivered immediatel­y before Mr. Pence’s. “Let me address this very openly. The Europeans alone cannot cope with fighting internatio­nal Islamist terrorism. We also need the support of the United States.”

The biggest takeaway from the Munich conclave of security leaders — a ritzy conference at the Bayerische­r Hof hotel where the world’s policy elite gather annually to joust over issues of the day — was that the Kremlin has a new rival in its efforts to unsettle Western alliances.

Many European officials said that Mr. Trump is such a major challenge to Europe that they cannot just hope to muddle through for the next four years.

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