LACK OF CONFIDENCE AMID MOUNTING TRUMP UNCERTAINTIES
Analysts said that under the multiple trans-Atlantic rifts on the Middle East peace process, the Paris climate accord, and the Iran nuclear deal, was lying Brussels' profound lacking of confidence in bilateral cooperation amid the mounting uncertainties of Trump's foreign policy.
In a Nov. 28 speech that outlined Trump administration's recent Europe policy, Tillerson, on the one hand, said the Article 5 of the NATO treaty "is the best mechanism" the Washington and Brussels have "to deter aggression" of Moscow, and on the other, urged European nations to increase their defense spending that accounts for two percent of their GDP.
Washington's underlining of NATO, according to Cui Hongjian, director of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, lies in the wish to reinforce the U.S. role in protecting Europe and rein in the European military buildup under the U.S.-led NATO mechanism.
However, Tillerson's calculations are highly likely doomed as Brussels was unwilling to positively commit itself to the U.S. regional and global agendas, deeply concerned about the leverage of the U.S. domestic issues on its foreign policy, the lacking of shared values between the two sides of the Atlantic and Tillerson's possible stepdown in the near future, said experts.
"European leaders yearn for stability in U.S. foreign policy. They are troubled by Trump's 'America first' rhetoric and inconsistent statements on NATO and the European Union," the Reuters noted.
WASHINGTON-BRUSSELS-MOSCOW DRAMAS TO CONTINUE
Russia-phobia has featured Tillerson's seventh Europe trip, as he warned all European nations of Moscow's "intrusion" in NATO foreign ministerial meeting and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) plenaries.
"Russia's aggression in Ukraine remains the biggest threat to European security," Tillerson said, accusing "Russia and its proxies" of "harassment, intimidation, and its attacks on the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission."
"Trump does not talk with President Putin as often as with other world leaders, and I think, again, that's simply a reflection of the strained relationship that exists between the United States and Russia," he noted.
"We join our European partners in maintaining sanctions until Russia withdraws its forces from the Donbass and meets its Minsk commitments," Tillerson added.
He further noted that to regularize or renormalize the West's relationship with Russia cannot be undertaken "until Russia begins to address those actions which we find not just unacceptable but intolerable."
Analysts said Tillerson's underlining of the Ukraine issues aims to elaborate the U.S. engagement in the EU's security maintenance, for which it was accused of not having taken enough resources to respond.
As for the U.S.-Russia relations under the Trump administration, Brussels' attitude has long been featured by ambivalence.
For fear of being betrayed by Trump, it does not expect Washington-Moscow rapprochement to come too soon with the Ukraine issues remaining unsolved. Meanwhile, sandwiched between the two nuclear powers, Europe does not welcome the radical breakup of Washington and Moscow neither, said experts.
It would be unrealistic to anticipate dramatic improvement of trans-Atlantic relations under the current circumstance, and Tillerson's visit could be capped as a success as long as he could keep the bilateral relationship from becoming worse, experts argued.
However, EU's Federica Mogherini said on the day when Tillerson left Europe that Trump's decision on Jerusalem would be a "gift" to extremists and to those not interested in peace, in a gesture that was widely taken as a slap in the face of Tillerson and the Trump administration at large.
Trump's decision "has a very worrying potential impact in this very fragile context," she said. "Now what the worst possible development could be that a bad situation turns into a worse one and that tensions inflame the region even further."
