State official reaffirms U.S. commitment to NATO defense
In an event welcoming Montenegro to NATO on Monday, a State Department official reiterated that the U.S. remains committed to the alliance's founding principle of collective defense.
"Montenegro's accession sends a strong message of strength to the region and makes clear to our allies that the U.S. remains as committed as ever to the principle of collective defense as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty," said State Department Under Secretary Tom Shannon in Washington, D.C., as he welcomed Montenegro into NATO as its 29th member country.
In a trip to NATO headquarters in Brussels last month, President Trump was expected to reassure European allies that he supported Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all of them. Ultimately, however, Mr. Trump did not mention Article 5, and spent most of his speech discussing how many NATO members did not spend enough on defense.
Article 5 has only been triggered once -- after the 9/11 attacks. Days after Mr. Trump's speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe must prepare to "take its fate into its own hands" and intimated that it could no longer depend on the U.S.
Shannon, who was joined by NATO Secretary General Jens Stolenberg and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, also
touted Montenegro's defense spending, saying that the Adriatic country "takes seriously" the financial commitment of joining NATO.
Montenegro, Shannon said, would spend 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense spending, a number that will increase to 2 percent by 2024, in keeping with NATO agreements.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Australia on Monday to send a similar message of reassurance to America's international allies. The Trump administration, Tillerson insisted, would not "put at arm's length those important allies and partners in the world."
Tillerson added that Mr. Trump wants to "remain engaged" on the issue of climate change despite his pulling out of the Paris Agreement, a move that was widely criticized by foreign leaders. "He's not walking away from it, he's simply walking away from what he felt was an agreement that did not serve the American people well," Tillerson said.
Standing next to him Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop maintained that her country would meet targets under the Paris Agreement as it is a decision that is in the "interests of our economy and our citizens."