With greetings from Trump, Pence says US committed to Europe reuters

TWO US GOVERNMENTS?

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault expressed disappointment that Pence's speech did not mention the European Union, although the vice president will take his message to EU headquarters in Brussels on Monday.

"I hope that we will have a clear response (in Brussels) ...

because Donald Trump has said he was overjoyed by the Brexit and that there would be others," Ayrault said, referring to Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

US Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the opposition Democrats, said he welcomed Pence's address but saw two rival governments emerging from the Trump administration.

Pence, Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his foreign minister Rex Tillerson all delivered messages of reassurance on their debut trip to Europe.

But events in Washington, including a news conference in which Trump branded accredited White House reporters "dishonest people", sowed more confusion.

"I like a lot of what I heard from Vice President Pence," Murphy told Reuters. "It's just hard to square that speech with everything Donald Trump is doing and saying," citing an assault on the free press.

The resignation of Trump's security adviser Michael Flynnover his contacts with Russia on the eve of the US charm offensive in Europe also tarnished the message Pence, Mattis andTillerson were seeking to send, officials told Reuters.

US Republican Senator John McCain, a Trump critic, told the conference on Friday that the new president's team was "in disarray".

The United States is Europe's biggest trading partner, the biggest foreign investor in the continent and the European Union's partner in almost all foreign policy, as well as the main promoter of European unity for more than 60 years.

TEPID APPLAUSE

Pence, citing a trip to Cold War-era West Berlin in his youth, said Trump would uphold the post-World War Two order.

"This is President Trump's promise: we will stand with Europe today and every day, because we are bound together by the same noble ideals – freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law," Pence said.

Pence received little applause beyond the warm reception he got when he declared his support for NATO. His warning that the "time has come to do more" on military spending was met with an awkward silence.

The United States provides around 70 percent of the NATO alliance's funds. European governments sharply cut defence spending after the fall of the Soviet Union but Russia's resurgence as a military power and its seizure of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula has started to change that.

Baltic states and Poland fear Russia might try a repeat of Crimea elsewhere. Europe believes Moscow is seeking to destabilize governments and influence elections with cyber attacks and fake news, an accusation denied at the conference by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Pence's tough line on Russia, calling on Moscow to honour the international peace accords that seek to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, were welcomed by Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz. Lavrov said after a meeting with his French, German and Ukrainian counterparts that there would be a new cease fire from Feb. 20.

"Know this: the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which as you know, President Trump believes can be found," Pence said.