U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended on Saturday his
nation's global role despite misgivings in Europe, vowing that Western values
would prevail over Russian and Chinese desires for "empire".
Seeking to reassure Europeans troubled by U.S. President
Donald Trump's "America first" rhetoric, his ambivalence over the
NATO military alliance and tariffs on European goods, Pompeo said there was no
crisis in Western leadership.
"I'm happy to report that
the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly exaggerated. The West is
winning, and we're winning together," he said in a speech at the Munich
Security Conference, listing U.S. steps to protect liberal democracies.
Pompeo's Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, accused him of telling
"lies, not based on facts" about Beijing's intentions.
Pompeo had been, in part,
responding to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who on Friday accused
the United States, Russia and China of making the world more dangerous.
French President Emmanuel Macron
told the conference of international leaders, lawmakers and diplomats he was
not surprised by Steinmeier's speech and had liked it.
"We cannot be the United States' junior partner,"
Macron said, adding that while he supported NATO, Europe needed to be able to
tackle threats in its neighborhood and at times act independently of
Washington.
"I'm impatient for European
solutions," Macron said.
Trump's decision to pull out of
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as well as the Paris climate accord, have
undermined European priorities, while moves such as recognition of Jerusalem as
Israel's capital have weakened European diplomacy, envoys say.
Pompeo defended the U.S.
strategy, saying Europe, Japan and other American allies were united on China,
Iran and Russia, despite "tactical differences."
Pompeo, however, reiterated
Washington's opposition to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under construction
between Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, a project backed by the
government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Citing Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, cyber threats in Iran
and economic coercion by China, Pompeo said those countries were still
"desiring empires" and destabilizing the rules-based international
system.
Wang responded to Pompeo by
saying: "All these accusations against China are lies, not based on
facts."
But he added that Beijing was
willing to sit down with Washington for "serious dialogue" and seek a
less confrontational relationship.
POLICY
OF DEFIANCE
Macron said the West's policy of
defiance toward Russia in recent years had failed and, as nobody wanted to
confront Moscow directly, the only option was to have a closer dialogue to
resolve differences.
"I hear the defiance of all
our partners, I'm not mad, but I know that being defiant and weak ... is not a
policy, it's a completely inefficient system," Macron told the conference.
"There is a second choice,
which is to be demanding and restart a strategic dialogue because today we talk
less and less, conflicts multiply and we aren't able to resolve them, he added.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark
Esper, who spoke immediately after Pompeo, focused his remarks solely on China,
accusing Beijing of a "nefarious strategy" through telecommunications
firm Huawei.
"It is essential that we as
an international community wake up to the challenges presented by Chinese
manipulation of the long-standing international rules-based order," Esper
said.
He said it was not too late for
Britain, which last month said it would allow Huawei a limited role in building
its 5G networks, to take "two steps back," but added he still needed
to asses London's decision.
"We could have a win-win
strategy if we just abide by the international rules that have been set in
place for decades ... that respect human rights, that respect
sovereignty," he said.
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