Pence Visits Eastern Europe to Support NATO as White House Considers Arming Ukraine

Vice President Mike Pence is wrapping up a trip aimed at reassuring several Eastern European allies that the U.S. will support them against Russian aggression. The trip puts the tensions between the former Cold War adversaries in the spotlight just days after Russia moved to expel U.S. diplomats in response to a sanctions bill targeting Russia passed by Congress last week, which the White House says will soon be signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Pence’s visit began in Estonia, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally adjacent to Russia, and in a speech to U.S. and Estonian troops he emphasized the importance of NATO as a deterrent to Russia:

"No threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east. At this very moment, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine the democracies of sovereign nations, and divide the free nations of Europe against one another… A strong and united NATO is needed more today than at any point since the collapse of Communism a quarter-century ago.”

Following his visit to Estonia, Pence visited Georgia — which fought a five day war with Russia in 2008 over two breakaway regions known as Abkhazia and South Ossetia that are now occupied by thousands of Russian troops.

Georgia isn’t currently a NATO member, but it maintains close ties with the alliance it hopes to join in the future. To that end, it’s currently hosting a military training exercise involving more than 2,800 troops from the U.S. and six other European nations. Russia is planning a military exercise of its own this summer in Belarus (which borders NATO members Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland) that will involve up to 100,000 troops.

Pence will conclude his trip with a visit to NATO’s newest member, Montenegro, where he will attend a dinner with the country’s president before meeting with nations participating in the Adriatic Charter — a group of Balkan nations that have either joined or aspire to join NATO.

The vice president’s trip isn’t the only news coming out of the Trump administration involving the defense of Eastern Europe. The Depts. of Defense and State have offered the White House plans to provide lethal defensive aid to Ukraine, which has been fighting Russian-backed separatists in its eastern border region since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. Under the plan, the U.S. would provide Ukraine’s military with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. Russia has denounced the plan, which an official from the country’s foreign ministry said would "add fuel to the fire."

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— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Sgt. Justin Geiger - U.S. Army / Creative Commons)