Pence pledges USA will stand firm with Europe, NATO

He rallied on, saying: “I don’t like our American friends narrowing down this concept of security to the military”.

Mattis’ statement came amid worries that President Donald Trump could retreat from eight decades of US leadership with his “America first” policy and as the region confronts a tumultuous security environment – an aggressive Russian Federation, wars in eastern and southern Mediterranean countries and terrorist attacks by Islamist militants.

Both for Europeans as well as Russians who gathered eagerly in Munich this year to hear from some of the new US administration’s most senior officials, there was by Saturday a recognition that no immediate clarity will be forthcoming on core aspects of USA foreign policy.

She added: “I am firmly convinced that it is worth fighting for our common worldwide multilateral structures, but we must improve them in many places”. Germany would lose its budget surplus if it increased defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP from 1.22 percent, he said. “But a falsely understood Islam”, she said.

Angela Merkel retaliated to United States demands saying her country would stick to its current defence plans, and is “conscious of its responsibilities”.

The UK defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the conference, warned Russian Federation against becoming involved in Libya as it had done in Syria. “In his tweets, he rants about the media, attacks independent judges, targets individuals and companies, and belittles worldwide organizations”. She stressed the need to maintain global alliances and told the audience, with Pence seated a few feet away, that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is “in the American interest”.

Nor are the Europeans impressed with American demands to spend more on their defence.

“The allies recognized 2014 as a watershed year, and we could no longer deny reality”, Mattis said, referring to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. He has the support of the U.S., the UK, other European leaders and the United Nations.

Lithuanian prosecutors said Friday they had opened a probe into who was responsible for spreading false allegations of a rape committed by German troops freshly deployed to the Baltic NATO state.

On the campaign trail past year, Trump said he would not feel bound by Nato’s article five, under which an attack on any one of the 28 members is treated as an attack on all. Mr Mattis has the hard task of explaining how the Trump administration intends to maintain the credibility of its security guarantees to Europe. “We failed to deliver and we need to deliver”, said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

However, many European governments are unlikely to spend more on their military if this is perceived to be simply a result of United States bullying, especially when the demand for extra spending comes from a USA administration which remains incoherent in its own strategic priorities. But some have already reacted negatively to Mattis’ comments in Brussels that USA taxpayers will no longer accept allies who fail to shoulder their share of the security burden. “And I think it would be very good if this could be put on the agenda of the NATO-Russia Council”, the German chancellor stated at the Munich Security Conference.

Mr Pence used his Munich speech to bring a message of reassurance from the new president.

“Russia is a neighbour of the European Union”. But he also said the USA may get a second chance to take Iraqi oil as compensation for its efforts in the war-torn country, a notion rebuffed by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who will be meeting with the vice president.