MUNICH, Germany, Feb  16, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US Vice President Kamala Harris

on Friday sought to reassure allies rattled by the possible return of Donald
Trump to the White House that the US will continue to take a leading role in
the world.
       
The question of the United States' commitment to its allies was high on the
agenda at the Munich Security Conference following remarks made by Trump on the
campaign trail on Saturday.
       
"We must stand with our allies and that is what represents the ideals of
America," Harris said in a speech to 180 top Western diplomats and military
officials at the annual event.
      
 The former president suggested the US should abandon NATO allies who did
not meet their defence spending commitments.
      
 The proposal sent shivers down the spine of European officials for whom the
turbulence caused by Trump's first term in office were still fresh.
      
 But Harris tried to calm the nerves ahead of the US elections in November.
       "In these unsettled times, it is clear America cannot retreat, America must
stand strong for democracy," Harris said, adding that it would be "foolish" for
the US to isolate itself.
       "America will continue to lead," she vowed.
       
       - 'European pillar' -
    
       
       Trump's outburst put a question mark over future US willingness to defend
its allies, central to the NATO alliance.
       In response, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Trump not to
"undermine" the alliance members' collective security, while the European
Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell said NATO could not be an alliance "a la
carte".
       Trump's words have also fired a new debate within Europe over how best to
organise its own defence.
       German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday called on the EU to do
more on common defence and security to "strengthen the European pillar of NATO".
       EU President Ursula von der Leyen also backed the ideas of creating a
European defence commissioner following the European Parliament elections in
June.
       "People watching the US appear very nervous," Comfort Ero, the head of
think-tank Crisis Group, told AFP in an interview.
       "The US is still seen as an influential player... But I think increasingly
there's alarm, there's concern, there is uneasiness, about the uncertainty, the
unpredictability, just the polarisation, the division," Ero said.
       
       - Ukraine support -
       
       Beyond NATO, allies are also concerned about the United States' continued
support for Ukraine, seen as vital to sustaining its war effort against Russia.
       "A Trump victory would likely end White House support for Ukraine," Rachel
Tausendfreund form the German Marshall Fund of the United States wrote recently.
       US support for Ukraine has already fallen foul of divisions in Congress,
with a $60-billion package of military aid held up by Republican lawmakers.
       But Harris said abandoning Kyiv would be a "gift to (Russian President)
Vladimir Putin".
       "We will work to secure critical weapons and resources that Ukraine so
badly needs," she pledged in Munich.
       US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Munich on Thursday
after a stopover in Albania, will also be on a mission to gainsay Trump's
message in bilateral meetings with European colleagues.
       "Elections are elections, Trump is Trump," the Albanian Prime Minister Edi
Rama said Thursday next to Blinken.
       "I don't think that NATO will be weakened. I don't think the United States
will shy away from their role and from their leadership," he said.