At Munich Security Conference, is the West ‘winning’ or growing evermore ‘Westless’?

Nicholas Burns: Marco, this is the most important global security conference held annually. World leaders flocked to it. The theme was, by the German organizers, “Westlessness,” meaning the liberal countries have been dominant for 75 years since the end of the Second World War, and their contention is that the West is losing unity, that the West is badly divided. And if you did listen to President [Emmanuel] Macron of France, as I did, to President Steinmeier of Germany, to the foreign ministers of NATO allies, the tone was extremely negative. If you look at the public opinion polls, and this is very concerning, I’m in Germany today, Donald Trump is considered by the German people to be less trustworthy than Vladimir Putin. And so it was one of the most contentious meetings that I’ve attended. And as an American, obviously, you don’t want to see your country criticized like this.

I think it was ill-advised of Sec. Pompeo to strike a pose that everything’s fine. The New York Times headline was Pompeo says the West is winning, the West isn’t buying it. The reaction in the room was stone cold silence. No applause. And everyone knows that this relationship between the US and Europe is filled with problems because we’ve withdrawn from the climate change agreement. We’ve withdrawn from the Iran agreement. Suddenly, the United States — which for 70 years has supported the European Union as a strategic partner — suddenly President Trump is depicting the European Union as some kind of hostile adversary to the United States, which is not true. And the administration has been so cool towards NATO, so overtly critical, that the mood in the room among the leaders from Europe was that this is the first time in seven decades where they think they can no longer count on the United States. And so for Sec. Pompeo to act as if there is no problem, that simply wasn’t realistic. And the reaction, I think, was quite critical.

It’s difficult because the United States is trying to convince the Taliban to agree to a cease-fire to reduce violence. And that’s a good first step. And I think that the Trump administration is right to do this. And there’s a lot of support in Europe for it, because there are more than 40 countries, all the NATO countries and many countries beyond around the world — Japan, New Zealand, Australia — who have troops in and around Afghanistan. And so there’s a lot riding on this.

But we are a long way from an agreement because the Taliban, of course, is an unpredictable, and, I think, irresponsible organization, untrustworthy. And so the administration is going to have to see if they can even keep to these agreements. And if they do, then the Taliban and the Afghan government — our partner of [President] Ashraf Ghani, and he was in Munich — they’re going to have their own negotiation to see if they can agree on terms for peace. So it seems to me that an agreement is far into the future, a final agreement. But I do think the Trump administration is right to see if there’s a possibility of drawing down American forces, as many as possible. But we have to do that, obviously, in a responsible way. And frankly, I think the Trump administration is getting high marks around the world for the careful way that it’s proceeding.