State Department: οι ΗΠΑ είναι προσηλωμένες στην υπεράσπιση της Δύσης ως μια κοινότητα κοινών συμφερόντων και αξιών

Στην επίσημη προεπισκόπηση του προγράμματος επισκέψεων στην Ευρώπη του υπουργού εξωτερικών των ΗΠΑ Rex Tillerson, προέβη το State Department. Σύμφωνα με την ενημέρωση:

The Secretary will travel to Belgium, Austria, and France this next week, leaving on Monday and returning on Friday. The purpose of this trip is really to reiterate America’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance and underscore a message to our allies and partners in Europe that the United States is committed to the defense not only of Western institutions but also the West as a community of shared interests and values more broadly.

A lot of the themes we’re going to hit on this trip I think you see also in the Secretary’s speech a few days ago at the Wilson Center. He outlined an approach to Europe and some specific areas of focus and interest that these meetings will provide us an opportunity to follow up on in greater detail.

Starting with Brussels, the Secretary will participate in a NATO foreign ministerial. He’ll meet with EU High Representative Mogherini, have lunch with the EU 28 foreign ministers in a special meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, and meet with Belgian officials to discuss a wide-ranging bilateral agenda that includes defense cooperation, Afghan strategy, and defeat of ISIS. Also in Brussels, the Secretary will meet with Secretary General Stoltenberg, who’s done so much for the NATO alliance, presiding over a really expansive agenda these past few years, also meet with other counterparts from NATO and the Georgian foreign minister to underscore the U.S. commitment to Georgian partnership with NATO.

In these and other meetings, I think the essence of the messaging will be to reinforce President Trump’s central message of shared responsibility in Europe and the global agenda that we’re jointly managing with the EU, NATO, and European partners that includes DPRK, Syria, and issues related to Russia.

The Secretary will then travel to Vienna on the 6th and through the 8th. This is for the annual meeting of the OSCE, and the emphasis there will be on the importance of members meeting the OSCE commitments in arms control and human rights. The Secretary will also reiterate in Vienna, and I think all of our other stops, the message of support for Ukraine, Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. In Vienna there will also be a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Kurz to thank Austria for its contributions to peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and continue to work with Austria on Western Balkans and issues in terrorism.

Finally, the Secretary will travel to Paris on December 8th and meet with French counterparts. As you all know, we have a very special and deep cooperation with the French on a global agenda that encompasses issues in – on Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, DPRK, and Sahel.

So it’s a very full agenda. We’ve got a lot of meetings both in the NATO format and the OSCE format, but really both of those sets of organizational meetings provide a target-rich environment for meeting with NATO and EU and other partner states more broadly, so making the most of those opportunities to reinforce the messaging that was in the Secretary’s speech earlier this week. If you haven’t had a chance to read that speech, I would encourage you to do so. I think it will preview for you some of the themes that you’ll see coming out of these meetings.