Spotlight: Tillerson's Europe visit barely helpful to patch up cracked ties

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- As Brussels has become increasingly upset with U.S. president's provocative policies on Europe, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's chance of roping in the U.S. allies during his current visit to Europe seems slimmer than ever.

Tillerson's five-day trip to Europe starting from Monday, his seventh since taking office in February, will take him to Belgium, Austria and France for a group of bilateral and multilateral events.

The purpose of this trip, a senior State Department official requiring anonymity said on a Friday teleconference with media, was to "reiterate America's commitment to the transatlantic alliance" and commitment to the defense of Western institutions and the West as a community of shared interests and values.

ESTRANGEMENT ON VALUES

According to the official, the themes Tillerson will hit on the trip are expected to echo his earlier speech on U.S.-Europe relations, where he said an important part of the ties is about shared values.

However, the two sides across the Atlantic Ocean have been thrust in bitter odd right before Tillerson embarks on the tour.

The Netherlands and Britain have both protested President Donald Trump's earlier decision to retweet anti-Muslim video clips of a Britain-based far-right group, which allegedly depicted violence carried out by Muslims.

"Trump's (re-posting) of anti-Islamic videos has put a great strain on U.S.-UK relationships," Darrell West, a senior fellow with think-tank Brookings Institution said, noting the incident occurred "at a delicate time as Britain is negotiating its exit from the European Union."

Trump's tweets have sparked a row between the White House and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who said Trump was "wrong" to re-tweet what she described as "hateful narratives."

"British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents: decency, tolerance and respect," she said in an earlier statement.

For his part, Trump shot back via twitter: "Don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom," referring to recent Islamist terror attacks in England.

In Friday's teleconference, the anonymous official said Tillerson himself "feels very strongly about those values."

"I would also say just the scope of the agenda that we're managing with European allies and partners I think speaks for itself," he said, "We're going into this trip focused on those critical areas including in the realm of values."

ALIENATION ON TRUMP POLICIES

Tillerson will also underline the necessity of burden-sharing among the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members, which experts said will put another strain on U.S.-Europe relationships.

Trump has urged European allies to step up their defense spending to 2 percent of the gross domestic product, threatening to consider cutting off the U.S. defense support of those who did not make it.

However, the European nations argued that they have made their share of contribution when supporting the U.S. initiatives in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Asking more from them is "insatiably avaricious."

In the teleconference, the official defended Trump's rhetoric, saying Tillerson in the trip "will continue to make the point that NATO is safer and stronger when all allies are sharing -- are shouldering their fair share of the defense burden."

"The burden-sharing agenda is partly about whether allies are spending more on defense, but it's also about what allies are doing," the official added.

Brussels and Washington have drifted apart over Trump's endorsement of Brexit and tougher immigration law, as well as his rejection of the Paris climate accord, Iran nuclear deal and the United Nations Educational,Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Trump's latest attempt to close the office of Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington and his reported plan to announce Jerusalem the Israeli capital this week have sparked wide resentment and hostility in Europe.

All of these signs, experts said, will make Tillerson's job harder than that of any of his previous trips.

DIFFERENCES ON RUSSIA

Tillerson is expected to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Vienna on the sidelines of the the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ministerial meeting on Dec. 7, when the two chief diplomats will "have a fairly robust set of discussions on a lot of global issues -- DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Ukraine, and certainly Syria," according to the State Department.

Tillerson "feels very strongly about this portion of the agenda," the official said, "It needs to be an outcome that would have a U.N. force encompassing the contested area and not just ratifying the gains that the Russians have made on the ground."

The statement, together with Tillerson's Europe speech which hinted Russia was Europe's most immediate threat, would make his meeting with Lavrov more difficult and largely fruitless.

Analysts argued that Tillerson's effort to underline the Russian threat to Europe was nothing short of a tactic to loop in the U.S. European allies and hence make them more dependent on the U.S. military and financial support.

However, the European nations, still major importers of Russian oil and gas, might find Tillerson's rhetoric unflattering. Moreover, the West, in desperate need of Moscow's cooperation on securing de-escalation zones in Syria, among others, will drift other NATO members further apart from Tillerson's agenda. Enditem