U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized China, Iran, and Russia for violating numerous treaties and multistate agreements.

In a foreign policy speech to the German Marshall Fund in Brussels on December 4 ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Pompeo said recent moves by the three countries have caused instability in the world.

Pompeo said the United States would continue to lead by calling out 'bad actors' that have exploited loopholes within international institutions for their own gain.

He also rejected critics who suggest that President Donald Trump's administration is acting unilaterally on key international issues.

'In the finest traditions of our great democracy, we are rallying the noble nations to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity,' Pompeo said.

'Under President Trump, we are not abandoning international leadership or our friends in the international system,' he said. 'We are acting to preserve, protect, and advance an open, just, transparent, and free world of sovereign states," Pompeo said.

"This project will require actual, not pretend, restoration of the liberal order among nations," Pompeo said. "It will require an assertive America and leadership from not only my country, but of democracies around the world.'

Trump in October vowed to abandon a 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Moscow, saying Russia has been violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) since 2014.

NATO allies are calling on Trump not to go through with his decision, but instead to work to bring Russia into compliance with the treaty.

Pompeo said Trump's administration is working to reform institutions that have been at the heart of international order since the end of World War II.

He said the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank have become corroded and are in need of change.

He said Washington is pushing the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to reduce funding to countries like China, saying they already have access to financial markets in order to raise capital.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa RFE/RL

RFE/RL journalists report the news in 23 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.

webteam@rferl.org LIKE FOLLOW Subscribe via RSS

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Republished with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036