Paris, July 17 (Nouvelle Solidarité)—U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, accompanied by Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, is wrapping up a three-day visit to Paris, where he met officials from France, Germany, Britain and Italy — with China on the agenda.
“Ambassador O’Brien looks forward to conducting in-depth meetings in Paris this week with his counterparts from France, U.K., Germany and Italy to address a range of national security challenges including China, 5G, Russia, Afghanistan, Middle East/North Africa and COVID response and recovery,” said National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot, who is also on the trip.
The U.S. has been pressuring Europe to block Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies in the 5G market, and Boris Johnson ended up giving in to U.S. demands. On July 14, O’Brien welcomed the U.K.’s decision: “Well, I think it’s welcome news for the West and for countries that care about data security. If you care about your people’s privacy or citizens’ privacy, if you are concerned about intimate data and the security of a country, you don’t want to have an untrusted 5G provider, which has back doors for the Chinese Communist Party and their secret police to get a hold of your data. ... It’s also good news for the United States since we share so much intelligence with our close ally and our special relationship partner.”
In response, China warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on July 15 that his decision to ban Huawei from the 5G network would cost Britain dearly in investment, casting the move as coming from politicized pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.
O’Brien, who replaced mad bomber John Bolton as the President’s National Security Adviser, opposed Bolton’s style but not his ideology, reports Politico. “People who have worked with and are close to O’Brien describe him as similarly aggressive as his predecessor on issues like Iran.”
“He worked for John Bolton at the United Nations and might be as hawkish,” said Andrew Exum, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy from 2015-2016. O’Brien, according to his State Department biography, was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005 to serve as a U.S. Representative to the 60th session of the UN General Assembly where he worked with Ambassador John Bolton.
O’Brien, a Mormon, was a campaign adviser to Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz. In 2016, he published a collection of hawkish essays on foreign policy, titled “While America Slept: Restoring American Leadership to a World in Crisis,” denouncing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as appeasement.
