PR offensive fails to quell anxiety

Sat Feb 18, 2017 | 4:21pm EST
By Noah Barkin | MUNICH

... The Europeans heard from Defense Secretary James Mattis that the NATO military alliance was not "obsolete" after all, despite Trump's repeated suggestions to the contrary.

And they were told by Vice President Mike Pence that Russia would be "held accountable" for its actions in Ukraine, despite Trump's friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin ...

"What we heard here is not reassuring," Ruprecht Polenz, former head of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament, told Reuters after Pence's speech to the Munich Security Conference. "There is absolutely no vision for how we are going to work together, going forward" ...

... Elmar Brok, head of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament and a party ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel <said> "... we don't know what's coming on Twitter tomorrow morning" ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security-usa-europe-analysis-idUSKBN15X0RM