President Trump did not attend the ceremony at the U.S. State Department’s Treaty Room that officially made Montenegro the 29th member of NATO less than two weeks after a controversial speech at the alliance’s headquarters.
Thomas Shannon, a State Department undersecretary and the third-highest official in the State Department, met with Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and Montenegrin Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic for the ceremony.
This comes after a NATO summit where Trump criticized NATO members and appeared to push Markovic out of the way for a photo opportunity. Markovic later said that the push was a “harmless situation.”
Trump has been a frequent critic of NATO and pointedly didn’t mention the Article 5 provision in the NATO charter that states an attack on one member is an attack on all members. While the White House argued Trump implicitly backed the key provision, the speech left many NATO leaders unnerved.
He also slammed member countries for not paying enough on military defense and said they owed a lot of money.
The speech led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to declare Europe must protect itself and no longer rely on the United States and United Kingdom.
In place of Trump, Vice President Mike Pence met with Markovic at the White House after the ceremony, AP reports.
Markovic took to Twitter on Monday to thank Trump, Pence and the U.S.’s support of Montenegro’s admission into NATO.
PM Marković: Thank you President @POTUS , Vice President @VP , State Secretary @Secy_State_US for #US support for our membership in #NATO pic.twitter.com/JJHLmE7UxT
— Govt. of Montenegro (@MeGovernment) June 5, 2017
