On Secretary Tillerson's Upcoming Travel to Brussels, Belgium for the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting
Special Briefing
Office of the Spokesperson
Senior State Department Official
Via Teleconference
Brussels, Belgium
March 28, 2017
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, and thanks to all of those who have joined us this afternoon. This will be a background call to preview Secretary Tillerson's trip to Brussels, Belgium to attend the NATO foreign ministers meeting. I'll introduce our speaker this afternoon, but as a reminder, [Senior State Department Official] will be attributed on background as a senior State Department official.
Today we're joined by [Senior State Department Official]. And before I turn it over to [Senior State Department Official], one more reminder: This call will be embargoed until the conclusion of the call. And with that, I'll turn it over to our speaker.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thanks, [Moderator]. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today. It really is an opportune time for a NATO foreign ministerial. We're about two months out before President Trump will join the NATO leaders for a leaders meeting in late May in Brussels, so there's a lot of preparatory work necessary to get ready for that important meeting. And the NATO allies are doing a lot now to send different battalions of troops on a rotating basis to the Baltics and Poland as part of a deterrence presence that was agreed by the leaders in the Warsaw Summit last year. So a lot is going on now, and it's an opportune time for the NATO foreign ministers to get together. Montenegro will also be at the table as an invitee. And you saw the news from the Senate last night on preparations for the Montenegro vote.
President Obama – President – excuse me. President Trump has two strong goals for this ministerial and for his summit, and Secretary Tillerson will be pushing President Trump's agenda at this ministerial. The first agenda topic, the first goal that Secretary Tillerson's going to push, is to get the allies to renew their commitment through increased resources for NATO's defense spending. It's essential that the allies honor their commitment from the last two previous summits to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, and of that defense spending, 20 percent needs to go for capacity building, for investment in capabilities and military equipment. So the 2 percent and the 20 percent goals of defense spending are a critical goal of President Trump for the alliance, and Secretary Tillerson will be pushing that very hard.
The second agenda topic from Washington's perspective is President Trump's goal to push NATO to increase its role in the fight against terrorism. And so Secretary Tillerson will be pushing allies in that way as well. Allies are doing pretty well in both areas, and we can talk about that in the Q&A, but it is important for the Secretary to use this meeting on Friday to push for allies to do more.
He will also be consulting with allies about our shared commitment to improve the security situation in eastern Ukraine, and the need for NATO to continue to push Russia to end its aggression against its neighbors, and to fulfill the Minsk commitments with regard to Ukraine.
Vice President Pence and Secretary Mattis have already met with – have already had meetings, NATO meetings. So this will be Secretary Tillerson's first meeting with all the allies together. He's had a series of bilateral meetings, several dozen allies, a couple dozen allies and partners he's already met with. Today, in fact, he met with three Baltic foreign ministers to go over this important NATO agenda.
The two – let me say another word about the two Trump – President Trump goals for NATO this year. NATO, the President and the Secretary, the Secretary of Defense, Vice President, have all made it very clear that the United States will continue to do its part to make sure that NATO has the capabilities necessary for our collective defense and deterrence. However, the President has made very clear, and the Secretary will reinforce this on Friday, that it's no longer sustainable for the United States to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO's deterrence and defense spending. Secretary-General Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg, has been a leader in this area; we commend him for his efforts, and a number of allies are making good progress in this area. But we need the allies to do more.
In terms of the terrorism, it's a top – fighting terrorism is a top priority for the United States and for all NATO allies. And last week's tragic events in London have just reinforced that once again for us. NATO does have some unique capabilities. There's a toolkit that NATO is drawing on now and can do more to win the fight against terrorism. NATO is doing some important work to bring stability to Iraq and Afghanistan. All NATO allies are contributing to the coalition to defeat ISIS. NATO as an organization is as well. And we're working with the European Union and other partners on information sharing, capacity building for partners, and the fight against returning foreign terrorist fighters.
Finally, the Secretary will – is in close consultations with the Ukrainians on the deteriorating situation there and the need for NATO to facilitate an end to Russian aggression against its neighbors, to push Russia to end its aggression, and to fulfill its Minsk commitments. So Ukraine will very much be on the agenda as well of this NATO ministerial.
Maybe I'll stop there and open for questions, [Moderator].
OPERATOR: Thank you. Once again, for your questions you may queue up by pressing *1 at this time. Again, for questions, please press *1. The first question in queue will come from Josh Lederman with the Associated Press. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hey, guys. Thanks for holding the call. So the administration has continued to insist that you stand by NATO 100 percent, you're totally committed to defending your allies and everything, despite President Trump's earlier suggestions that that might not be the case. So I'm wondering, as Secretary Tillerson is on this mission to get countries to renew their pledges to meet their 2 percent goal, as you suggested, what exactly is the leverage? In other words, what is Secretary Tillerson going to be telling allies will happen if they do not fulfill their spending commitments?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, the commitment, as you know, is an allied commitment. It's not a U.S. requirement of the allies. It's an allied commitment. All the leaders in the Wales Summit in 2014 publicly committed to do that. And so what we're going to do, what the Secretary is going to do in preparation for the leaders meeting is to push all the allies to have a plan to get to 2 percent by the – by 2014[1], to have a specific plan on how to do that. Five allies are there now. Several more are very close and will be there very soon. Others need to have a more clear and – plan on how to get there, and that's what the Secretary is going to push.
QUESTION: But what is he suggesting will happen if they don't get that plan? Or I mean, what's the leverage to get them to actually do that, since this has been an issue for several years?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Allies have made this public commitment. Our security environment is getting – is getting more difficult. It's important for allies to do this for their own security. It's not like this is a favor to the United States. The purpose of this, of this commitment, is to improve the security for all of us in the transatlantic region. So the idea is for the allies to honor their commitments. We are demonstrating – the President and the Secretary demonstrating that we are doing more than our share. We'll continue to do that. But the leverage is for them to honor their commitments and to have a trend line that their defense spending will meet the goals that they committed to. And it's because their security, our joint security, requires it. That's the main leverage that we have.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Okay. Next question?
OPERATOR: That will come from Felicia Schwartz with The Wall Street Journal. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing the call. We heard from some of the European officials who were here last week that they didn't hear specifics from, I guess, Tillerson and Mattis on the ISIS fight and the plan for Raqqa and Syria. I know that Tillerson has been meeting with Trump this week a few times, and so is he bringing specifics after that – after those meetings? And what message does he have for them on the ISIS fight?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The – all the NATO allies are members of the coalition to defeat ISIS, and most of the foreign ministers were, as you said, here last week for the coalition ministerial. The Secretary, as you know, is – will be stopping in Ankara on his way to Brussels and will be discussing that with a critical ally, with Turkey, and will be discussing it with NATO allies as well at the ministerial.
Nothing to say here today. Nothing specific on what the plans might be or the talking points might be, but the – it will clearly be on the agenda as they discuss ways to get allies and NATO as an organization to do more in the fight against terrorism. Absolutely will be a key agenda topic.
QUESTION: And if I could just ask one quick follow-up, which is the – I guess the officials will be coming off of a NATO-Russia meeting, and the Germans, they're interested in discussing missile deployments and INF violations in Kaliningrad, and I was wondering if – what Tillerson might have to say about that.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, we've had a series of NATO-Russia Council meetings. This one that's going to be on Thursday was agreed a while back, before the ministerial was agreed for this Friday. The agenda is pretty standard right now. It always starts with Ukraine. We use the NATO-Russia Council meetings to push the Russians to honor their Minsk commitments and to end their occupation of Crimea and to – their aggression in the Donbas is the first agenda item. The second agenda item is we're trying to find ways to mitigate the chances of military incidents and risks through transponders and different kinds of safety and – safety measures to improve the safety of our military operations. So those are the agenda topics for the NRC at the ambassadorial level on Thursday, and then the ministers will meet on Friday.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question in queue will come from Margaret Warner with PBS NewsHour. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thank you so much for doing this. I had one quick clarification on NATO defense spending and then another question. Are Secretary Tillerson or is the administration pushing the allies to speed up their timetable? Because, of course, the deadline isn't till 2024.
And then, on Ukraine, you said something about wanting to look at how to improve the security in Ukraine. Senator McCain, of course, has called for furnishing lethal defensive weapons to the Ukrainians. Is that on the table?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The timeline that was agreed at Wales is the official NATO-agreed timeline, but absolutely, President Trump, Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis, Vice President Pence are all pushing allies to do more faster. Absolutely no apology for that. They will be doing that quite openly. Five allies are there already. The Secretary met with the Baltic foreign ministers today. Estonia is there now; Latvia and Lithuania will be there in the next year or so. So a number of allies are there, and we hope that others will get there before 2024, absolutely. That will be one key agenda for the ministerial Friday and for the – President Trump's meeting in late May.
On assistance to Ukraine, there – we've provided, as you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of security assistance to Ukraine. We – our goal is to help Ukraine defend itself and guard its – and regain its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Lot of – there are interim discussions on precise ways to do that. Nothing to announce on defensive weapons today.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question is from Nick Wadhams with Bloomberg News. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. I just wanted to circle back to press you a bit harder on Josh's question, because you didn't answer that question, and that is that numerous U.S. officials, including Trump and then Defense Secretary Mattis, have said that there is basically a quid pro quo here. So Mattis in February said, "If your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment, each of your capitals needs to show support" and basically do more. So what does the moderation of the U.S. commitment look like if other countries don't step up and do what the U.S. wants and increase their defense spending?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The Secretary will make the point that it is not sustainable for the United States to maintain a disproportionate share of this burden. He'll make that point very clear. In terms of what Secretary Mattis said, you're going to have to go to the Pentagon to get an explanation for that. But Secretary Tillerson's point will be exactly that – that it's no longer sustainable for the U.S. to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO's deterrent and defense budgets and that allies need to honor their commitments that they made for their own and for our joint security. Those will be the key points that the Secretary will make.
QUESTION: I mean, I understand that, but again, I mean, this is the issue I think we all keep coming back to and everybody has a big question about, is that you guys keep saying that it's no longer sustainable for the U.S. to do that, but you don't tell us what the result will be in the end. So, okay – it's no longer sustainable. So then what happens after it's no longer sustainable? How do things change and how does the U.S. dynamic with NATO change after that?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The trendline is up. Last year, allies – European allies collectively increased their defense spending. I think it was 3.8 percent in real terms. So the trendlines are clearly up. The – President Trump's and Secretary Mattis's and Tillerson's, Vice President Pence's urging is having an impact, so the trendline is up. The spending is improving. And won't get into hypotheticals about what ifs. The point is that we're going to continue to push this. Allies are listening. And we're making progress.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will come from Conor Finnegan with ABC News. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thanks for holding the call. Among other things on this, to keep on the defense spending, President Trump has said that Germany actually owes money on previous spending. Will Secretary Tillerson be communicating that message as well to the foreign ministers of countries who have not met their 2 percent defense spending threshold in the past?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The – this was obviously a major topic at the – when Chancellor Merkel was here in Washington last week. I think the White House spoke this morning on that point as well. The basic point that we have for Germany is that we welcome her leadership on this and that the U.S. – the German Government has committed itself in a credible way to reach NATO's 2 percent target by 2024. We're going to push – continue to push Germany and watch them honor that commitment. But that's the main point that Secretary Tillerson will make on Friday.
QUESTION: But to other countries who have previously not met that threshold, will that be the message to them as well, that they owe money from previous years?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The message will be the same, that they honor their commitment that they made at Wales in 2014 and that they have a credible path, through the budget process or some internal process – that they have a clear path to 2 percent of defense spending, plus the 20 percent target, which is very important as well. In fact, more allies reached the 20 percent part of it, which is a very important part of the Wales commitment that we don't talk enough about, because that's the part of the commitment that actually determines what portion of the defense dollars go to real capabilities, which is the goal.
The goal here is real capabilities, not just defense spending for the sake of defense spending. It's to improve our capabilities so that the alliance, jointly and individually, we can defend ourselves, improve our security in these challenging times. And the message is going to be, to Germany and everybody that's not there yet, they have to have a credible plan that they can demonstrate to other allies to reach 2 percent and 20 percent by 2024.
OPERATOR: Thank you. The next question will come from Michelle Kosinski with CNN. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Thanks so much. Two questions: First of all, if after Wales something like 80 percent of NATO countries did make that commitment to boost the spending to 2 percent of GDP within 10 years – I mean, obviously that's not 100 percent, but what is the problem with those commitments that have already been made? Is the U.S. administration now looking at that and saying that those commitments weren't clear enough? Like if 80 percent already made that commitment, what's the problem there? Is it just – if the agreement was 10 years, you're now saying that's too long a time?
And my second question is: If initially Secretary Tillerson was not going to go to this meeting and the State Department said it was because he was going to meet with all of these foreign ministers at a different event, what changed his mind to now put forward alternate dates, now be able to attend the meeting? Thanks.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: On the defense spending point, the commitment was made by all allies in Wales, so 100 percent of the leaders who met at Wales, and that's all the leaders, made the commitment to reach the 2 percent and the 20 percent. So everybody has committed to do that publicly and in an official way.
So that's the first thing, that everybody made the commitment at Wales, and what we're – what we want is a clearer path. Some have made just the statement, a public statement, but what we want in addition to that, and we're working with allies on precisely how to do this, is a clear path that's demonstrated their – that's demonstrated their commitment in more than words.
In terms of increased spending is the first thing. An increased spending timeline is important. Political and budgetary commitments would be another important way that individual ministers and leaders could demonstrate this to us. There is a whole NATO defense planning process that has spending elements to it. So there are a number of ways that allies could demonstrate through their defense ministers, foreign ministers, finance ministers as well, and leaders, that they're on the path to reaching this goal.
In terms of the timing, the original date didn't work, because Xi Jinping is in town that day and Secretary Tillerson needs to be part of those discussions with President Trump. And so it's taken a few days to – a bit of time to find a new date that all 28 allies and the secretary-general could – could – a mutually convenient date for all 28 plus the secretary-general. It's not an easy process to coordinate the schedules of 28 foreign ministers. So we have a new date and we'll all be there together. The ministers will all be there together on Friday.
OPERATOR: Thank you. The next question will come from Yeganeh Torbati with Reuters. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thank you for doing this. You mentioned, obviously, the defense spending issue and trying to get NATO to focus more on counterterrorism or terrorism issues, but obviously, there are a lot of other things that the NATO allies are concerned by, one of them being kind of increased Russian disinformation and Russian propaganda.
I'm wondering if this is something that Secretary Tillerson will be addressing. Will it be on the agenda? Are NATO allies concerned about what they're seeing? And is the U.S. – does the U.S. have this as priority when it's meeting with NATO allies who have said just in recent weeks that this is something that they're seeing a lot more of? Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes, this is very much a part of the NATO agenda now. The NAC, the North Atlantic Council, at the ambassadors level has had a number of consultations on this, where partner countries and allies have reported on Russian malign influence and other kinds of disinformation and hybrid and cyber – cyber actions. So there have been consultations at 28 on this topic.
There are a number of centers of excellence that different allies have which are going to improve our cooperation and coordination on this and build some capabilities so that we can address this. Some of these issues are not necessarily NATO issues; some are EU issues; some are national issues. But it is very much on the agenda, and the Secretary will clearly raise it in the discussion on Russia.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will come from Barbara Usher with BBC. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thanks. My questions on defense spending have largely been answered, but just a small detail. The Times of London was reporting that Donald Trump handed Chancellor Angela Merkel a 300 billion pound bill for the money she owed NATO, which was described as outrageous by a German minister. Is there any truth to that?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think there were some denials of that earlier today, and I'll leave that to the White House to – now, check the White House statements today, and I think that answers the question.
MODERATOR: Next question.
OPERATOR: The next question will come from Frank Langfitt with NPR. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah, hi, thanks. Frank in London. My question has kind of been answered. It was the "or else" question for 2024: If people don't – if countries don't meet the spending limit, then what? But it sounds like you're not willing to give us a sense of what that might mean. Thanks.
MODERATOR: Sounds like a comment, not a question. So we'll go on to the next question.
OPERATOR: Thank you. At this time, we'll turn the conference back over to our presenters for any closing comments. Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you very much. Just to reiterate the importance of this ministerial to prepare for the leaders meeting in late May and to make sure allies are on track for accomplishing the goals that we want for them and that we're doing together, and at the same time, close consultations on Ukraine and Russia.
So it's an important agenda with two key topics of defense spending, terrorism as the U.S. goal, what we're pushing, and a lot of allies agree – all allies agree on that. And the second agenda topic is the nexus of Ukraine and Russia issues.
Thank you very much.
MODERATOR: Thank you to our speaker and to our participants. As a reminder, this has been a background call with attribution to a senior State Department official. And now that we have concluded the call, the embargo is over.
Thanks very much.
[1] 2024
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