Pence tells European allies US ‘will hold Russia accountable’

MUNICH / AP

Vice President Mike Pence vowed on Saturday that the United States will “hold Russia accountable” even as President Donald Trump searches for new common ground with Moscow at the start of his presidency.
Pence, in an address to the Munich Security Conference, also offered assurances to European allies that the US “strongly supports” NATO. He said the U.S. would be “unwavering” in its commitment to trans-Atlantic institutions like NATO. In his first overseas trip as vice president, Pence sought to calm nervous European allies who remain concerned about Russian aggression and have been alarmed by Trump’s positive statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin. The address to foreign diplomats and security officials also sought to reassure international partners who worry that Trump may pursue isolationist tendencies.
Pence said the U.S. would demand that Russia honor a 2015 peace deal agreed upon in Minsk, Belarus, to end violence in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists.
“Know this: The United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground which as you know President Trump believes can be found,” Pence said. Pence met afterward with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who addressed the conference just before the vice president. Merkel stressed the need to maintain international alliances and told the audience, with Pence seated a few feet away, that NATO is “in the American interest.”
European countries along Russia’s border are rattled by the prospect of deeper US-Russia ties after Trump suggested sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea could be eased in exchange for a nuclear weapons deal, and after the president referred to NATO as “obsolete” in an interview before his inauguration. Trump has since tempered his language, stressing the importance of the NATO alliance during his telephone conversations with foreign leaders. Pence also scheduled meetings on Saturday with the leaders of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko — countries dealing with the threat of Russian incursion. Pence also planned to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
The visit, which includes a stop in Brussels on Sunday and Monday, comes amid worries in Europe about Russian aggression, Trump’s relationship with Putin and whether the new president may promote isolationist tendencies through his “America First” mantra.
“The vice president has sent reassuring messages through his own engagement but that hasn’t been enough to dispel the concerns that you see in many parts of Europe,” says Jeff Rathke, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There are such grave challenges that the U.S. and Europe face that it only heightens the desire for additional clarity from Washington.”
Pence’s stature within the administration was also under scrutiny because of the recent dismissal of Trump’s national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn.

‘No nation can
master world’s challenges alone’

Bloomberg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a shot across the bows of the US drive towards protectionism with a call for broad multilateral cooperation, saying that no nation can resolve the world’s crises on its own.Addressing an audience that included US Vice President Mike Pence in Munich on Saturday, the chancellor argued for improving the international institutions that have underpinned the global order to safeguard them. She cited the financial crisis to argue that working together strengthens all concerned.
“No nation can resolve the world’s problems alone,” Merkel said in a speech to the Munich Security Conference. “These great global crises can only be resolved together.” Merkel, as the leader of Europe’s biggest economy, holder of the current Group of 20 presidency and the longest-serving G-7 leader, took up the call of multilateralism amid anxiety over President Donald Trump’s calls for “America First.” She is due to hold talks with Pence in Munich, her highest level contact with the new US administration to date.

Russia seeks pragmatic US ties
and ‘post-West’ world order

MUNICH / AP

Russia wants pragmatic relations with the United States but also is hoping for the creation of a “post-West world order,” the country’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
Sergey Lavrov’s comments at the Munich Security Conference came hours after Vice President Mike Pence told the gathering that the US will “hold Russia accountable” even as the Trump administration searches for common ground with Moscow. The annual get-together of diplomats and defense officials has been marked by Western concerns about President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy and attitude toward Russia.
“What kind of relations do we want with the US? Pragmatic relations, mutual respect, understanding our special responsibility for global stability,” Lavrov said. “We have immense potential that has yet to be tapped into, and we’re open for that inasmuch as the US is open for that as well,”
he added.
More broadly, Lavrov declared that NATO “remained a Cold War institution.” Pence earlier said Washington “strongly supports” the military alliance, the latest in a string of US leaders to give similar commitments after Trump in the past called it “obsolete.”