New US envoy Pompeo takes Trump spending message to NATO

America’s top diplomat told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg he had “hopped on a plane and come straight here” as the pair met at the start of a gathering of foreign ministers at alliance headquarters in Brussels.

Welcoming the former CIA director, Stoltenberg said the fact Pompeo had come so soon after being sworn in on Thursday was a “great expression of the importance of the alliance”.

But the message Pompeo brings from Washington will not be so warmly welcomed by all NATO members.

Trump wants other member states to increase their military spending and thus reduce the burden placed on the alliance’s biggest member.

Some allies, most notably wealthy Germany, are reluctant to meet a commitment made at a NATO summit in Wales in September 2016 to spend two percent of their GDP on defence.

Trump has repeatedly declared this to be tantamount to countries not paying their dues, and US officials said Pompeo would carry this message to Brussels, as his predecessor Rex Tillerson had done.

As he arrived, Germany’s new Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stressed the contribution Berlin was making to humanitarian work in Syria and to Iraq.

“Germany plays a very important role,” Maas said.

Earlier this month, welcoming the presidents of the three Baltic republics on NATO’s eastern flank with Russia, Trump praised them over the older partner states in western Europe.

Friday’s talks of the 29 foreign ministers — and a defence ministers’ meeting in May — will prepare the way for a full summit in July that could see the US clash with Germany and others.

– ‘Undermine and invade’ –

To support increased spending, Pompeo will stress the threat posed by Russia, which a senior US official said has “demonstrated its ability to threaten, coerce, undermine, and even invade its neighbours”.

“We will underscore how important it is for all allies to take this threat seriously, to honour their commitment from the Wales summit,” he added.

“Six countries in NATO currently do so, nine have submitted credible plans for doing so, and it’s time for the other 13 members of the alliance to step up, and especially Germany, NATO’s largest and wealthiest European member state.”

While Pompeo is in Brussels, US President Donald Trump will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House — the pair is shown here at the White House last year

As the ministers meet in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Washington for a much-anticipated meeting with Trump, hard on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron’s triumphant three-day state visit.

France and Britain took part in a recent US-led punishment strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical arsenal, but Germany has not joined recent missions and Merkel’s meeting will be less warm than Macron’s.

The senior US official said Germany spends only 1.24 percent of its GDP on defence and plans only to increase this to 1.25 percent by 2021.

Russia will be top of the agenda at Friday’s meeting, which will be the first gathering of NATO foreign ministers since the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain and the last before the alliance leaves its Cold War-era headquarters for new premises.

In a press conference ahead of the talks, Stoltenberg slammed Moscow’s “dangerous behaviour”, citing the annexation of Crimea, interference in Ukraine, meddling in Western elections, cyber attacks and disinformation.

NATO ministers will look at what more they can do to counter the Russian threat, but Stoltenberg said the alliance remained open to “meaningful dialogue” with Moscow.

– Troops for Iraq –

But some NATO members are fearful that Pompeo’s reputation for confrontation could upend the alliance’s dual-track policy on Russia, which combines military deterrence with diplomacy.

The NATO ministerial will be the last meeting held in the historic North Atlantic Council room, as the alliance moves to a new headquarters

Stoltenberg is expected to say a few words to mark the end of the final meeting of ministers in the historic North Atlantic Council room where Article 5 — the alliance’s mutual self-defence pact — was invoked for the first and only time, after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Ministers will also debate plans to expand NATO’s training mission in Iraq. Details will be confirmed at the summit in July, but Stoltenberg said it would involve several hundred personnel.

After his time in Brussels, Pompeo will head to the Middle East, with stops in Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — countries chosen to reflect their “importance as key allies and partners in the region,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.