Washington offers $1 billion to countries in Central and Eastern Europe

Washington would offer up to $1 billion in financing to Central and Eastern Europe to help the region avoid reliance on Russian energy, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said on Saturday at the Security Conference in Munich. U.S. financing would go toward the Three Seas Initiative.

Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper also spoke about Russia's aggression, while French President Emanuel Macron argued that a dialogue with Moscow is needed and warned that Russia will continue to try to destabilize Western democracies through cyber operations and manipulation of social networks on the Internet.

French President Emmanuel Macron once again expressed his vision on European sovereignty, in industrial and defense terms, and listed Russia as an extremely aggressive actor, including through hybrid warfare tactics. However, Macron argued that dialogue with Russia is needed and that economic sanctions, although they must be maintained, do not seem to have results.

Taking over the term „sovereignty”, always mentioned by the French President, Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper explained that for the United States, defending the sovereignty of Europe or America means not tolerating border changes made with force, the way Russia did by the illegal annexation of Crimea, nor the disputes regarding the borders that China has with all its neighbors, illegal economic tactics practiced by Chinese companies, the fact that Iran quietly continues its nuclear program or attacks on European energy independence through projects like Nordstream 2. Pompeo said that China is at present the main security threat to the United States.

As a new attestation today of our support for the sovereignty and prosperity and energy independence of our European friends, I want to announce that through the US Agency for International Financial Development and with the support of the US Congress we want to provide $ 1 billion in funding to the countries of Eastern and Central Europe participating in the Three Seas Initiative. Our goal is to mobilize private sector investors in the field of energy to defend freedom and democracy, said Pompeo.

In turn, Mark Esper harshly criticized China, saying it was manipulating the international order and warned that those countries, including from Europe, which will use Chinese technology such as 5G networks, endanger common defense and exchanges of information, because Chinese companies in the field are controlled and used for espionage by the Chinese Communist Party.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei