At Berlin event, US urges allies to defend freedom

Berlin, November 8 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a stark warning against China and Russia at an event on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, urging Western allies to defend hard-won freedoms. “Western, free nations have a responsibility to deter threats to our people” from governments like China, Russia and Iran, Pompeo said, speaking just a few metres (yards) away from where the Wall ran past the German capital’s world-famous Brandenburg Gate.

The US and its allies should “defend what was so hard-won... in 1989” and “recognise we are in a competition of values with unfree nations,” he added.

Germany is prepared to mark three decades of Wall’s fall since November 9, 1989. — AFP