CABINET/DEFENSE/FOREIGN POLICY/NATO/TRUMP PEOPLE/JAMES MATTIS: “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis traveled to the eastern edge of the NATO alliance on Wednesday [5-10-17] to pledge American solidarity with the Baltic nations, but he stopped short of giving his hosts in Lithuania what they wanted: a commitment to base Patriot missile-defense systems in the region.
With Russia adopting an increasingly assertive stance, Lithuania and its two Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, were among those most rattled by comments from President Trump that the NATO alliance was ‘obsolete’ and by his suggestion that the United States might protect only countries that had ‘fulfilled their obligations to us.’
Mr. Mattis offered some reassurance. ‘Have no doubt that we stand with you united in a common cause,’ he said while standing beside President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania at a brief news conference at the presidential palace as unseasonable snow flurries blanketed the country.
In her remarks, Ms. Grybauskaite described Mr. Mattis as ‘a good friend of Lithuania.’ “
-Gardiner Harris, “Jim Mattis, in Lithuania, Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to NATO,” The New York Times online, May 10, 2017