NATO
The US is holding European countries accountable for contributing their share of the NATO budget, according to Secretary of State Michel Pompeo. He added that in a second Trump Administration the US will be an active member of the organization. “I think General Secretary Stoltenberg, the leader of NATO, said there is now $400 billion more that will be invested into NATO. It’s a direct result of President Trump’s leadership. NATO is stronger under President Trump than it has been in previous administrations,” said Pompeo.
CHINA
According to the Department of Defense China now has the world’s largest Navy. There are some discrepancies when it comes to ship-to-ship equivalence, but China is developing a world-class blue water Navy. In a recent interview, Pompeo said that this is something that has been ongoing for a long time but that is accelerating. “The good news…,” he added, “…is President Trump has made sure that we have the capabilities that we need, whether it’s the designation of the Space Force so that we have the capacity to compete there, the work that we’re doing to make it more difficult for China to use Huawei and its technology to pose threats to us as well, they’re connected in their civil and military efforts, or simply the fact that we have now spent more than $700 billion two years running to make sure that our military has the capability that it needs.
Pompeo does worry about the Chinese Communist Party increasing military capacity, he said. But he also is confident that President Trump will put the US in a position to make sure that America is safe.
EQUADOR
The Galapagos Islands are being threatened by overfishing from Chinese commercial fleets that have encroached on Equador’s exclusive economic zone which is a fragile environmental area. Currently, there are 274 Chinese fishing vessels inside Equadoran waters. Pompeo called this predatory economic activity and added that “This is another exemplar, whether it’s in Africa and the predatory activities taking place in Africa, they – the Chinese Communist Party model today is to do what has been part of Chinese history for a long time: to create vassal states, tributary states that have to pay tribute to Beijing as the Middle Kingdom.” Pompeo said that the us has been working on a diplomatic solution for months to avoid an open conflict.
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In a statement released from Secretary Pompeo he said that “The Maduro regime’s announcement of conditional dismissal of criminal charges against roughly one-third of the political prisoners it holds does not solve, nor even address, Venezuela’s underlying political crisis. Hundreds of political prisoners remain, and like those now offered house arrest or an end (for the moment) to their criminal cases, none of these Venezuelans should ever have been imprisoned for a single day.”
He pointed out that the condition of democracy in Venezuela remains “dire.” The dismissal of charges are conditional, according to Pompeo, meaning that Venezuelan officials have threatened to rescind the benefit if any individuals “return to any act of terrorism, violence, or coup-mongering,” as arbitrarily determined by the regime.
Conditions for free and fair elections do not exist in Venezuela and the release of a number of political prisoners does not change that, according to the State Department. “None of the political parties whose leadership was removed and their names, symbols, and assets stolen by the regime have been restored, including parties from the left that challenge the regime’s control of Chavez’s political legacy,” noted Pompeo. Many politicians who oppose the Maduro regime still are not allowed to run for public office nor have they had their political rights restored. There is no freedom of the press or expression, or assembly in the country.
DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.
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