United States Vice President Mike Pence on Monday said that Russia was the biggest threat to the Baltic states, reported AP. Pence, who is on a visit to Estonia, said that the US supports the three Baltic states and would come to their defence if they are threatened by an outside force.

“Under President Donald Trump, the United States stands firmly behind our Article 5 pledge of mutual defence – an attack on one of us is an attack on us all,” Pence told reporters on Monday, after meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. “At this very moment, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, undermine democracy in sovereign nations, and divide the free nations of Europe, one against another,” CNN reported Pence as saying.

Pence asserted that Trump “knows security is the foundation of our prosperity,” and said that the US would increase trade and mutual investments with the Baltic states. “Under Trump, the United States of America rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation, or malign influence in the Baltic states or against any of our treaty allies,” he added.

Before leaving Tallinn, Pence greeted NATO troops saying, “no threat looms larger in the Baltic states than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbour to the east”.