Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision to skip an upcoming NATO ministerial is “a grave error” that suggests he plans to reorient U.S. foreign policy towards Russia, according to a top House Democrat.
“If that’s the case, it’s an absolute disgrace and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the United States from going down this path,” New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said late Monday. “If it’s not the case, Secretary Tillerson needs to explain why he arrived at this troubling decision.”
Tillerson plans to skip the NATO meeting in April, as it conflicts with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, D.C., but reportedly he plans to travel to Russia days later. Engel, a hawkish Democrat who recently applied George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” label to Russia and Iran, wants him to testify about the scheduling decision.
“I cannot fathom why the administration would pursue this course except to signal a change in American foreign policy that draws our country away from western democracy’s most important institutions and aligns the United States more closely with the autocratic regime in the Kremlin,” Engel said.
Tillerson will meet with foreign ministers from 26 of the 27 NATO countries on Wednesday, in a meeting about how to plan the final stages of destroying ISIS as a land-holding terrorist organization. “After these consultations and meetings, in April he will travel to a meeting of the G7 [Group of Seven] in Italy and then on to meetings in Russia,” a spokeswoman told Reuters, which first reported Tillerson’s plans.
