Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is sending a veiled warning to President Trump, arguing he shouldn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“Recognizing Crimea as part of Russia would undermine the rules-based international order that was created with U.S. leadership and has caused democracy to thrive around the world and made America a safer home for our citizens,” Corker said in a tweet on Monday, without directly mentioning Trump.
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Corker added that in the “upcoming Helsinki summit, the U.S. must stand firmly with our NATO allies and affirm our transatlantic partnership. Doing otherwise strengthens Putin and undermines democratic values.”
Corker’s tweet comes as he’s traveling in Northern Europe this week as part of his role on the Foreign Relations Committee.
“As I travel throughout the Baltics this week in my role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it is clear that Russia’s destabilizing behavior continues to impact the region,” Corker added on Monday.
“We’re going to be talking about Ukraine, we’re going to be talking about Syria, we’ll be talking about elections, and we don’t want anybody tampering with elections,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters on Monday that Crimea is not up for discussion.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine sparked widespread international backlash, including new U.S. and European Union sanctions and Russia’s removal from the Group of Eight, now known as the Group of Seven.