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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nU.S. Vice President Mike Pence pauses before speaking during a media conference at the EU Council building in Brussels on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n He underlined that “too many new and sometimes surprising opinions have been voiced over this time about our relations \u2014 and our common security \u2014 for us to pretend that everything is as it used to be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We are counting as always in the past on the United States’ wholehearted and unequivocal \u00a0 \u2014 let me repeat, unequivocal \u2014 support for the idea of a united Europe,” Tusk said. “The world would be a decidedly worse place if Europe were not united.” He asserted: “The idea of NATO is not obsolete, just like the values which lie at its foundation are not obsolete.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tusk added, “Both Europeans and Americans must simply practice what they preach.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pence voiced the administration’s strong support for NATO over the weekend and was due to visit the alliance’s headquarters later Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pence’s meetings were aimed at assuring European leaders that his words reflected the views of Trump and would not easily be swept away at the whim of the U.S. president or undermined by statements issued on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pence, as he did in an address Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, reaffirmed U.S. support for the NATO alliance and said Trump would demand that Russia honor its commitments to end the fighting in Ukraine. “In the interest of peace and in the interest of innocent human lives, we hope and pray that this ceasefire takes hold,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vice president also noted the “heartbreaking” deadly suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and subway system in March 2016, and said the U.S. would continue to collaborate with EU partners to address safety and combat terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The United States’ commitment to the European Union is steadfast and enduring,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pence was expected in his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to push for members of the security alliance to increase military spending. Trump has urged NATO members to live up to the target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. Vice President Mike Pence moved Monday to assuage European Union fears about the strength of Washington’s support for the union and its commitment to European security through the NATO military alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2370,1753],"class_list":["post-46222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3UPJZF3L4FAT3J3TEGHZPYESNM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/02\/20\/pence-tries-to-reassure-europeans-on-u-s-support\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n