core sector communique

State's Gordon Praises U.S.-European Strategic Alignment

By Phillip Kurata

Staff Writer

Washington - The strategic alignment between the United States and Europe is at its best ever, according to Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon.

"This ... is not an accident or the fortuitous or temporary alignment of geopolitical tectonic plates," Gordon said in Washington May 23. "It is ... the result of a deliberate and conscious strategy to invest in a partnership with the world's most advanced, military-capable and democratic peoples who share our values and ideals."

Gordon said that when President Obama took office in 2009, U.S. relations with Europe were in need of repair because of "unprecedented divisions" over Iraq, questions about European engagement in Afghanistan and disagreement about how to handle Iran's nuclear program. In addition, U.S. relations with Russia were at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, Gordon said.

The investment in the U.S.-European partnership has returned "real dividends," Gordon said, such as the nearly 40,000 European troops fighting alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan in "NATO's largest-ever overseas deployment."

He said U.S.-European cooperation was at the core of the NATO-led campaign to back the Libyan rebels' ouster of Muammar Qadhafi. In NATO's involvement in the Kosovo conflict in 1999, the United States provided 85 percent of the airstrikes, Gordon said. In contrast, in Libya, the United States flew 25 percent of the sorties, while France and the United Kingdom together accounted for 40 percent.

With regard to Iran, the United States and Europe have achieved "unprecedented unity" in the dual-track approach of putting pressure on the regime while keeping the door open to diplomacy, he said. "It is the common pressure that we are putting on the Iranians that we think has brought them back to the [negotiating] table," Gordon said.

The assistant secretary said the partnership is evident in dealing with remaining political and economic issues in Europe. Those issues include the integration of all the Balkan countries into "Euro-Atlantic institutions," settling unrest in Moldova and pressing for more political and economic openness in Ukraine and Belarus, Gordon said.

He added that under President Obama's leadership, the United States has made progress in developing more productive relations with Russia. The guiding principle of the Obama administration toward Russia has been to "cooperate on areas of mutual interest while speaking very plainly about areas of disagreement," he said. This approach has brought agreements on missile reduction, civil nuclear energy cooperation, military transit arrangements for Afghanistan and "unprecedented cooperation" on Iran sanctions, he said.

Gordon said the United States is committed to helping Europe deal with its financial crisis.

"The European Union is our largest trade and investment partner. The EU and its member states account for 58 percent of overseas development aid, and when you combine that with U.S. spending, we together provide 80 percent of the world's development assistance. We clearly need strong and prosperous European allies," he said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)