The Trump administration’s stances on NATO spending, Iran, Chinese technology and a new Russian-German pipeline are meant to defend hard-won freedoms, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday in Berlin.
Using an address to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communist hegemony in Eastern Europe, he stressed the need for allied democracies to work together with the U.S. and fight in the name of freedom.
Pompeo’s address was titled “The Lessons of 1989: Freedom and Our Future.” He said 30 years after East and West Germany were reunited, authoritarianism is once again rising and it must be challenged by the free world:
Citing Russia’s actions in Ukraine and China’s crackdown on dissidents, he says “we must recognize that free nations are in a competition of values with unfree nations.”
He says that’s why the U.S. has opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, raised pressure on Iran, warned of Chinese 5G network developments and urged NATO countries to increase defense spending rather than always relying on the U.S. to underpin Europe with money and firepower.
He says: “If we don’t lead, who will?”
Pompeo spoke the day after Emmanuel Macron claimed NATO is suffering a “brain death” and Europe can no longer depend on the U.S. to defend her.
In an interview with The Economist published Thursday, the French president said: “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO.”
Asked whether he believed in members’ commitment to Article Five — where if one North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member is attacked, the others will defend it — Mr Macron said: “I don’t know, but what will Article Five mean tomorrow?”
AP contributed to this story