Tillerson delivers allies a familiar message: Pay up
BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson joined on Friday a growing list of Trump administration officials to visit the hub of North Atlantic solidarity and scold the United States’ European allies, saying they do not spend enough on their collective defense.
“Allies must increase defense spending to meet their commitments,” Tillerson said, again and again, in a speech to NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
Like Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis before him, Tillerson insisted that all 28 members of the alliance spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their military, a level only a handful of members meet.
Along with the familiar rebukes, Tillerson also sought to reassure Europe that the United States — despite comments from President Donald Trump referring to NATO as “obsolete” — remains committed to an alliance that has kept the peace on most of the continent for nearly 70 years.
“Our bond remains essential for facing national and international security challenges in an increasingly unstable world,” Tillerson said. And like Mattis and Pence, Tillerson made clear that the United States had a jaundiced view of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, saying that facing down Russian aggression, as the alliance has done for most of its history, remained a crucial task.
The meetings in Brussels included discussions of military budgets, combating terrorism and addressing the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In comments after the meeting on Russia, Tillerson said Moscow must roll back its annexation of Crimea.
“Today, Russia’s ongoing hostility and occupation is compromising our shared vision of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace,” Tillerson said, adding that “sanctions will remain until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered our sanctions.”
His comments echoed similarly hawkish remarks made Friday by Mattis in London, where the defense secretary said that “Russia is choosing to be a strategic competitor, and we’re finding that we can only have very modest expectations at this point of areas that we can cooperate with Russia.”
The comments from both men came as investigations into the Trump presidential campaign’s contacts with Russian officials have transfixed much of Washington.
Tillerson initially said that he would not attend this meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels because it had been scheduled for next week, when President Xi Jinping of China would be visiting the United States. After missing White House meetings with the leaders of Canada, Germany and Israel, Tillerson had decided he could not miss Xi’s visit.
NATO officials hastily moved up the meeting so that the United States’ top diplomat could attend.