WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance says that Russia is an adversary of the US, but suggests that it is counterproductive to approach Moscow as an enemy.

The senator from Ohio also said Donald Trump is committed to NATO, the transatlantic military alliance seen as the bulwark preventing further Russian aggression in Europe, although the former president promised to “finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally reassessing NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”

Vance, in a series of television interviews broadcast Sunday, nine days before the election, made it clear that Trump, if returned to the White House, would pressure European members to spend more on defense and that their administration would work to stop quickly. Moscow’s war in Ukraine which began in February 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to cross the border.

“We’re not at war with him, and I don’t want to be at war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” Vance said when pressed during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about whether Russia is a enemy. Vance said “we have to be careful about the language we use in international diplomacy. We can obviously admit that we have conflicting interests with Russia”.

US officials confirmed this last week North Korea sent 3,000 troops in Russia for training before they can be deployed to Ukraine. US officials say Russia did it accelerated a disinformation campaign designed to sow distrust in the November 5 US election results.

Officials on Friday confirmed Moscow’s role in creating a video that appeared to show the destruction of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania in what was the latest Russia-linked effort to spread disinformation on social media.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris argued that Trump is too cozy with Putin and that Trump’s return to the White House would be calamitous for Ukraine and America’s European allies.

Vance was circumspect in supporting new sanctions against Russia, saying the Biden administration’s use of the tool for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was as effective as a “wet firecracker.”

“I don’t think we should overreact to anything. What we should be doing is encouraging other Americans to be careful,” Vance told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Don’t trust everything you see on social media. And of course we should push back where appropriate. But that’s the big question is, what is an appropriate response to a country making videos on social media? I’m not going to commit to that meeting right here.”

Trump boasted that he had an effective relationship with Putin when Trump was in office. The former president he praised the Russian leader, has suggested cutting off US money for Ukraine and repeatedly criticized NATO.

The former president said he would not defend NATO members who failed to meet defense spending targets and warned he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell it wants” to allied countries it deemed “delinquent”.

Vance stressed that a Trump administration would continue to support NATO, but would rely on Europe to increase defense spending.

NATO announced in June that a record 23 of its 32 member nations are meeting the alliance’s defense spending target of 2 percent of GDP this year. This is a nearly four-fold increase from 2021, when only six nations met the target.

“Of course, we will honor our NATO commitments,” Vance said. “But I think it’s important … to recognize that NATO is not just a welfare client. It should be a real alliance.”

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican Trump critic who supported Harris, said Trump’s approach to Putin demonstrated “a total lack of understanding of the importance of our allies in keeping the peace.”

Trump “talks about our allies like he’s a mob boss,” Cheney said on CNN’s State of the Union. “He seems to completely fail to understand that in order to keep the peace, we must have allies with us.”

In wide-ranging interviews, which included CNN, Vance also downplayed Trump’s recent comments about ending the federal income tax.

Trump said in an appearance on Fox News last week that “there’s a way, if what I’m planning works out,” to remove it. He told podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday that he is serious about replacing the income tax with rate hikes.

Trump has pledged to do the same the end of taxes on tips, social security and overtime pay if chosen.

“He’s talking aspirationally about something he himself thinks is less important than cutting tip taxes,” Vance said of Trump’s call to eliminate the federal income tax.