Roundup: Senior U.S. diplomat seeks to mend ties with Europe visit

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of State announced Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will visit five European countries to take part in conferences and hold talks with senior officials.

Sullivan will arrive in Munich on Feb. 16 to attend the Munich Security Conference, kicking off his visit to Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia and Belgium. He will participate in a nuclear security and arms control panel discussion with foreign government officials to reaffirm the U.S. stance on global nuclear security, as well as hold talks with officials from Germany and other countries.

The senior U.S. diplomat will then travel to Rome to talk about cooperation on Ukraine, Libya and the Islamic State (IS), and deliver remarks at the local American Studies Center to discuss U.S.-Italian cooperation on global security issues.

He will visit Kiev on Feb. 21 to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Sullivan will stress the importance of Ukraine speeding up credible economic and anti-corruption reforms and underscore U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the State Department.

He will arrive in Riga on Feb. 22 and meet senior Latvian officials to reaffirm commitment to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack against one ally to be an attack on all allies.

Brussels will be his last stop on Feb. 23. Sullivan will participate in the Sahel donors' conference and discuss U.S. continued support for the development, security, and political issues of the African region.

Cross-Atlantic ties have been strained in recent years, especially after the Trump administration assumed office in January 2017. Bilateral discords revolve round the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and its constant push for Europe to increase the latter's share of defense expenses.

For their part, European nations complain about the U.S. doing little to curb Moscow's move on the Ukraine issue, which they see as a blatant aggression of European nations. Enditem