Tillerson will push NATO allies to ‘do more, faster’

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this week holds his first meetings with the full roster of NATO partners, and aides say he will make a concerted effort to press member states to increase their defense spending.

Tillerson was en route to the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday, where he will also discuss strategy in the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials. An offensive to retake the city of Raqqah looms, and Turkey’s role could be crucial.

From Turkey, Tillerson on Friday will be in Brussels, headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for talks with foreign ministers of the other 27 member nations, including Turkey. NATO moved the meeting from April to Friday after Tillerson initially said he would not attend because of a scheduling conflict.

The Trump administration has been sending mixed messages on NATO, with the president frequently dismissing its importance, while his top Cabinet members pledge “100% support” for the alliance that has been the foundation for peace in the West since World War II.

If NATO allies are expecting soothing words from Tillerson, however, they may be in for a disappointment. While he will say the United States remains committed to NATO, he will emphasize that countries must pay more.

“It’s no longer sustainable for the United States to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO’s deterrence and defense budgets,” a senior State Department official said, referring to the portion paid by the U.S. as a “burden.” “We need the allies to do more.”

The official, who briefed reporters ahead of Tillerson’s trip on condition of anonymity, refused to say what steps the administration would take if countries don’t spend more. President Trump has hinted he would not comply with the NATO commitment that all nations go to the aid of any member under attack, and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, at a security meeting in Munich, Germany, last month, warned that the U.S. could “moderate its commitment.”

In 2014, all members of NATO agreed to allocate, by the year 2024, 2% of their GDPs to defense spending, and from that budget dedicate another 20% to military equipment and “capabilities” such as weapon systems, intelligence and so forth. (No money is actually owed to the United States, despite Trump’s erroneous assertion.)

Only five nations have met the spending goal, according to the State Department, with several others close. The Trump administration wants the countries to redouble efforts.

“Absolutely,” the official said, the administration is “pushing allies to do more, faster. Absolutely no apology for that.”

Most NATO countries agree they should spend more on defense but many note they contribute to regional security in other ways and have also provided troops to U.S.-led military operations from Afghanistan to Libya. They are concerned that Trump does not appreciate the value of the alliance.

“NATO members live and die on the pledge of mutual defense,” said a German official based in Washington who asked not to be identified in order to be able to speak candidly. “Without that guarantee, Europeans will remain nervous.”

Tillerson’s talks in Turkey will be similarly delicate. In Syria, Turkey wants the Trump administration to make a clean break from reliance on Kurdish militias ahead of any offensive to take Raqqah, Islamic State’s self-declared capital. The U.S. considers the Kurdish groups among the most effective combatants against the militants, but Ankara sees many as merely an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization based in southern Turkey.

The Trump administration needs Turkey’s cooperation but also acknowledges differences over this key issue. U.S. officials say a so-called “isolation phase” for Raqqah, with several hundred U.S. troops moving into the area and backing local militias, was being accelerated.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has offered Turkish special forces to the battle for Raqqah but only if the Kurds are sidelined. Tillerson is not expected to make that concession, aides said.

A State Department official said Tillerson also anticipates Turkey will raise the case of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania whom the Erdogan government blames for a coup attempt in the summer. Turkey is demanding Gulen’s extradition, a request that is slowly wending its way through the Justice Department with little chance of being granted any time soon. The official did not say what Tillerson would tell the Turks, but the administration position has been that the request must run its course.

It was recently revealed, however, that Trump’s former national security advisor, Mike Flynn, discussed with Turkish officials the possibility of removing Gulen from the U.S. without waiting for the judicial process to end. The conversations took place in September, when Flynn was serving as an advisor to the Trump campaign. He has denied doing anything illegal.

The Gulen case has badly soured relations between Washington and Ankara, which Tillerson hopes to repair. The tensions prompted Erdogan to turn increasingly to Russia, even though Turkey is a NATO member.

Russia will be on the agenda in both Ankara and Brussels. Europe and many in the U.S. military are warning vehemently against weakening NATO at a time of increasing Russian belligerence.

“A resurgent Russia has turned from partner to antagonist,” NATO’s supreme Allied commander, U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, testified before Congress this week. However, he added: “Russia does respect NATO. It’s one of the reasons that they’re trying to undermine NATO and fracture it.”

At NATO on Friday, Tillerson and his counterparts will be joined by representatives from the newest country about to join: Montenegro. The U.S. Senate voted this week to approve tiny Montenegro’s application, one of the last of the member states to do so. The inclusion of Montenegro, once a part of Yugoslavia and under the former Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, is seen as a challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seeks to exert control over parts of Eastern Europe.

Special correspondent Umar Farooq in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

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