Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says European allies need to come to terms with the U.S. push to reform international institutions, even as many say European nations are skeptical.
“There’s a long history of countries just refusing to acknowledge that things have changed and it’s time to restructure,” Pompeo told reporters Tuesday while returning from the 2018 NATO Foreign Minister summit in Brussels. “Change is hard everywhere.”
Pompeo offered that assessment hours after delivering a speech designed to rehabilitate President Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy platform in the eyes of allies who regard it as a U.S. withdrawal from historic alliances. They should rather see Trump as “rallying the noble nations to build a new liberal order,” as Pompeo put it during an address on the sidelines of the summit.
Afterwards, he cited one of the most controversial issues of Trump’s early presidency — the president’s criticism of NATO — as one of their chief successes.
“We’ve rebuilt NATO in important ways already,” Pompeo said during the flight back to the United States. “NATO is a far stronger organization as a result of the Trump administration than it was for the previous decade, I can assure you. And the 28 European ministers who were there with me today know that too.”
[Opinion: Trump is right to criticize NATO allies on defense spending]
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the civilian leader of the alliance from 2009 to 2014, corroborated Pompeo’s observation — up to a point. He touted the fact that “military allies are investing much more on defense,” which has been a top priority for the Trump team, while the United States has deployed additional forces to deter the threat of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
“So on the ground, militarily, I would say NATO has been strengthened, in the last couple of years,” Rasmussen told the Washington Examiner just days before the summit began. “But having said that, it is a matter of concern that NATO, at the same time, has been politically weakened because of the statements by the president that could be interpreted as a lack of commitment to NATO Article V,” which establishes that “an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.”
That counterintuitive mix of applause and unease marks the debate over the U.S. plan to withdraw from a Cold War-era nuclear weapons deal in February. Europe regards the INF Treaty, which bans land-based intermediate range cruise missiles, as a key agreement for security on the continent. But Russia has been in violation of the pact for years, according to western assessments that date back to former President Barack Obama’s administration.
“Personally, I think the U.S. threat is the right step at this moment,” Rasmussen said over the weekend. “The only language that is clearly understood by President Putin is strength. It’s a firm decision. It is the language of power … [but] I don’t think that my view represents the general view.”
Still, Trump’s foreign policy advisers — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and those such as Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton who orchestrate many of the policies that many Europeans dislike — have made a reassuring impression on U.S. allies.
“Of course, we’re still concerned, but I have to say that, first of all, the president is surrounded by very good and reasonable people in the security team,” Rasmussen said. “Mattis, of course knows NATO in and out … and Pompeo, Bolton — all those people have, in my opinion, the right approach.”
But the fragility of that confidence became apparent moments later as Rasmussen contemplated the prospect of Trump replacing Mattis.
“If, at a certain state, Mattis — for one reason or another — were to leave the U.S. government, that would create huge, huge problems with U.S. allies within NATO,” the former Danish prime minister told the Washington Examiner. “If he were to be sacked, that would be an indication that the U.S. government doesn’t feel as committed to Article V as in the past. And, in the worst case, it might also tempt [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to test the strength of the alliance and in particular the strength of Article V.”
Pompeo, who protested Tuesday that “multilateralism has too often become viewed as an end unto itself,” sought simultaneously to instill certainty that the United States remains determined to maximize the value of the transatlantic alliance.
“This is an indispensable institution,” Pompeo said of NATO. “To that end, all NATO allies should work to strengthen what is already the greatest military alliance in all of history. Never – never – has an alliance ever been so powerful or so peaceful, and our historic ties must continue.”
