Top US diplomat tells anxious allies: ‘we’re going to be OK’

BERLIN – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to reassure jittery allies that the values they share with the United States will prevail.

Speaking in Berlin after receiving Germany’s Order of Merit award Monday, Kerry said “it would be inappropriate for me to come here and not somehow speak to the uncertainty that people feel about where things are going.”

German officials have been rattled by the recent referendum in Italy, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections.

Kerry told an audience of senior diplomats that “we’re going to be OK.”

He added that “this alliance is critical to everybody on this planet because of what we believe about human beings, about opportunity, about freedom, and about the rule of law.”