US foreign policy toward allies incoherent: Pundit

Recent remarks by US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis about the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in comparison to President Donald Trump’s statements against the organization expose incoherency among high-ranking officials of the new US administration, says Michael Springmann, a former US diplomat in Germany.

“It is remarkable incoherent for the Trump administration” to take different positions in facing similar issues like their stance towards NATO and European allies, Springmann said on Friday night.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has appreciated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the fundamental bedrock of trans-Atlantic cooperation, while Trump, in an interview with two European newspapers in January, said NATO was “obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago” and that “because it wasn't taking care of terror.”

Springmann added that the US government should adopt coherent stances especially when it comes to its allies and interests.

The former diplomat referred to Washington’s attitude toward Berlin and Moscow, saying, “The United States has been trying to split Germany away from Russia as a matter of foreign policy for a number of years” and such a foreign policy is “nonsense.”

Meanwhile, he noted, German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen wants to boost Germany’s military budget and extend Germany’s military reach around the world.

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Springmann further noted that the world must rein in hardline American and German officials and “concentrate on the problem with NATO, which is yesterday’s alliance, which was a defensive alliance, which the Americans and the Germans in particular have converted it into an offensive alliance.”

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