Pentagon NATO rhetoric: US asks allies to tone dow...

Summary

• Pentagon NATO rhetoric has become a quiet point of friction, as US officials ask several allies to temper public statements about the Russian threat.
• What the Pentagon NATO rhetoric requests sayOfficials sent Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia messages that urged restraint in public, the people said.
• For now, the Pentagon NATO rhetoric requests show how differently Washington and its European allies see the best way to handle Moscow.

AI Generated Summary

Pentagon NATO rhetoric has become a quiet point of friction, as US officials ask several allies to temper public statements about the Russian threat.

Four people familiar with the matter said the officials argued that some remarks by European leaders have undermined security on the continent.

What the Pentagon NATO rhetoric requests say

Officials sent Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia messages that urged restraint in public, the people said. They gave the messages in one-on-one meetings, and nobody knows whether other governments received them.

Also, a Pentagon official declined to discuss the claims. “Private conversations among allies are just that,” the official said.

Those who spoke to the news agency included three Europeans and an American official. Not one of them described the advice as confrontational.

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, was among the US officials who passed on the message. The Pentagon NATO rhetoric requests came through him. Colby also helps lead a review of how many US troops stay in Europe.