Washington
\nThere is no change in America\u2019s sanctions policy with regard to Russia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said as opposition lawmakers grilled him over the recent meeting between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.<\/p>\n
Testifying before Senate Committee on Foreign Relations yesterday, Pompeo assured Senators that the US does not and will not recognise the Kremlin\u2019s purported annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand together with allies, partners and the international community in our commitment to Ukraine and its territorial integrity. There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine. This Crimea declaration formalises United States policy of non-recognition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Responding to questions from angry lawmakers on the recent Trump-Putin meeting, Pompeo said there has been no change in sanctions policy with regard to Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US policy with respects to sanctions remains completely unchanged,\u201d he said during a heated exchange of words with the Democratic Senator, Robert Menendez, who is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n
Pompeo said Trump was \u201cvery clear\u201d with Putin about US positions. \u201cThey are the US positions that are the Trump administration\u2019s positions and he spoke about them very firmly and clearly when he met with Vladimir Putin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pompeo said from the outset the US administration\u2019s approach has been to steadily raise the cost of aggression until Putin chooses a less confrontational foreign policy while keeping the door open for dialogue in national interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween our two nations, the US and Russia possess over 90 per cent of the world\u2019s nuclear weapons. President Trump believes the two great nuclear powers should not have a contentious relationship. This is not just in our interests but in the interests of the whole world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe strongly believes that now is the time for direct communication, our relationship in order to make clear to President Putin that there is the possibility, however remote it might be, to reverse the negative course of our relationship. Otherwise, the administration will continue opposing tough actions against Russia in response to its malign activities,\u201d the top American diplomat said.<\/p>\n
Defending Trump, Pompeo said in Helsinki, the US sought to explore whether Russia was interested in improving the relationship, but made clear that the ball is in Moscow\u2019s court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe defended America\u2019s fundamental strategic interest in Syria and Ukraine. And I, personally, made clear to the Russians, there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump is well aware of the challenges that Russia poses to the United States, and its partners and allies. He\u2019s taken a staggering number of actions to protect our interests, he asserted.<\/p>\n
As \u201cproof\u201d, he cited several examples, including 213 sanctions on Russian entities and individuals in the Trump administration, expel of 60 Russian spies from the US and the closure of Russian consulates in Seattle and San Francisco.<\/p>\n
On US sanctions over North Korea, Pompeo said it will remain in place till the country eliminates its weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica\u2019s objective remains the final, fully verified de-nuclearisation of North Korea…We\u2019re engaged in patient diplomacy. But we will not let this drag out to no one…President Trump remains upbeat about the prospects for North Korean de-nuclearisation. Progress is happening. We need Chairman Kim Jong-un to follow through on his commitments that he made in Singapore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Until North Korea eliminates its weapons of mass destruction, US sanctions and those of the United Nations will remain in effect. Multiple UN Security Council resolutions require the country to eliminate all of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, he told the lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose resolutions were passed unanimously and they remain binding. We absolutely need every single nation to maintain the enforcement of those sanctions to which every nation has committed. The path ahead is not easy, but our hopes for a safer world and a brighter future for North Korea endure,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington There is no change in America\u2019s sanctions policy with regard to Russia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said as opposition lawmakers grilled him over the recent meeting between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Testifying before Senate Committee on Foreign Relations yesterday, Pompeo assured Senators that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37346,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37344\/revisions\/37346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}