(Bloomberg) -- Without ever mentioning Donald Trump by name, Vice President Kamala Harris tore into his foreign policy rhetoric in a speech in Germany Friday, denouncing those who “suggest it is in the best interest of the American people to isolate ourselves from the world.”

Some people in the US want “to flout common understandings among nations, to embrace dictators and adopt their repressive tactics and abandon commitments to our allies in favor of unilateral action,” Harris told the Munich Security Conference.

White House officials had made clear that Harris would use her appearance at the annual gathering of western officials to offer a rebuttal to former President Trump’s suggestion that the US wouldn’t come to the aid of NATO allies that don’t meet the alliance’s targets for defense spending.

In remarks that provoked deep unease among European allies, Trump said at a rally last weekend that as president he told an unspecified leader that he would let Russia do “whatever the hell they want” to countries that didn’t meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s targets for defense spending. President Joe Biden denounced those remarks as “dumb” and “shameful.”

Read more: Trump Eyes NATO Makeover, Hurried Peace in Ukraine If Wins

“Let me be clear, that worldview is dangerous, destabilizing and indeed short-sighted,” Harris said Friday. “That view would weaken America and would undermine global stability and undermine global prosperity.”

But she spoke in an auditorium with dozens of empty seats and to an audience that may be skeptical of the Biden administration’s ability to deliver on its rhetoric of support for European allies as legislation to provide more military aid to Ukraine remains stalled in Congress.

“Biden and Harris need to prioritize action now to help Ukraine win, not just survive,” Alicia Kearns, chair of the UK Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “My time on the Hill recently left me feeling the White House is bunkering down on foreign policy in response to Trumpian isolationist rhetoric instead of embracing America’s ability to step up and focusing on what they can do now to end suffering and protect the rules based order.”

--With assistance from Courtney McBride.

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