Pence blasts allies on Iran, Venezuela as Freeland urges 'working together'

As U.S. Vice-President Mike Pencelaunched a renewed rebuke of European powers over their position on Iran and Venezuela on Saturday, leaders from Canada and Germany defendedtheir own multilateral visionfor how the West should address world crises.

"America is stronger than ever before and America is leadingon the world stage once again," Pence told international officials gathered for the Munich Security Conference, listing what he described as U.S. foreignpolicy successes from Afghanistan to North Korea, and urgingsupport from American allies.

"America First does not mean America alone," he said,hailing the results of Donald Trump's presidency as "remarkable"and "extraordinary," and calling on the EU to follow Washingtonin quitting the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing the head ofVenezuela's congress, Juan Guaido, as the country's president.

Pence's speech was the latest attempt by a Trumpadministration official to put the president's "America First"agenda into a coherent policy plan.

But traditional American allies are troubled by Trump's rhetoric, whichthey say is erratic and disruptive, citing his decision to pullout of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as undermining an arms controlagreement that prevented Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

Leaders including Canadian Foreign Affairs MinisterChrystiaFreelandstressed on Saturday the importance of taking a multilateral approachto dealing with international issues, pointing to recent initiativessuch as the Lima Group of Latin American countries, which hasattempted to respond to the continuing political and economiccrisis in Venezuela.

"We need to be finding new ways to work together," said Freeland.

Last week, Pence accused Britain, Germany andFrance of undermining U.S. sanctions on Iran, and on Saturday herepeated hisdemand for European powers to withdraw from the arms control deal.

"The time has come for our European partners to withdrawfrom the disastrous Iran nuclear deal," he said, and laterpressed Merkel over the issue in bilateral talks.

Merkel defends Russia relations

Pence also reiterated to her Washington's opposition to theNord Stream 2 gas pipeline under construction between Russia andGermany under the Baltic Sea.

"We cannot strengthen the West bybecoming dependent on the East," Pence said.

Merkel, who made a robust defence of Germany's foreign traderelations and ties with Russia during her own speech, said later itwas unreasonable to assume that Russia would be an unreliableenergy supplier.

Speaking before Pence, Merkel questioned whether the U.S.decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal and its withdrawal fromSyria was the best way to tackle Tehran in the region.

During a question-and-answer session, she added that itwould be wrong to exclude Russia politically, but Pence saidWashington was "holding Russia accountable" for its 2014 seizureof Ukraine and what he says are efforts to destabilize Western democraciesthrough cyberattacks, disinformation and covert operations.

"Geostrategically, Europe can't have an interest in cuttingoff all relations with Russia," Merkel said.

Looming Venezuela crisis

Pence, who used his trip to Europe to push Trump's policy offavouring one-on-one deals with individual nations instead ofalliances and blocs,took aim at the EU over Venezuela's political crisis.

"Today we call on the European Union to step forward forfreedom and recognize Juan Guaido as the only legitimate president of Venezuela," he said, calling President NicolasMaduro a dictator who must step down.

Maduro has been keeping humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela, and Freeland said in Munich that "we are absolutely frustrated" with the blockade, adding that she spoke with Guaidoahead of the Munich gathering to ask him what messages he wanted her to bring to other leaders at the conference.

Freeland, U.S. leaders talktariffs

Freelandalso attended a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the gathering, including with U.S House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator.

Freeland said she spoke with Pelosi on the continuing U.S. tariffs imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum since June. She saidshe told Grassley, the chair of the U.S. Senate finance committee, that now a new trade pact has been reached with Washington, the tariffs should be lifted.

Pence's roving address also stepped up U.S. pressureon Chinese telecom equipmentcompanies such as Huawei TechnologiesCo., urging allies to avoid the firms and saying Chineselaw requires them to give Beijing access to networks and data.

China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi rejected Pence's comments.

"Chinese law doesn't require companies to install back doors tocollect intelligence," Yang told the conference.

Yang, one of the architects of Chinese foreign policy,echoed Merkel's vision, saying the world should "pull together"to address global challenges, while former U.S. vice-presidentJoe Biden got a standing ovation for a speech in which he saidthat after Trump, close traditional U.S.-EU relations would resume.

"America will be back," he said.