Far from the chaos and cacophony of Washington’s unending debate over Russia policy, Vice President Mike Pence has been delivering a remarkably consistent message on a trip to Eastern Europe this week — praising old alliances and reaffirming America’s commitment to defend democratic nations against those countries that would undermine them. Too bad these sentiments aren’t as eagerly embraced and celebrated by the man he works for back in the White House.

On Tuesday, Mr. Pence commended Georgia for its democratic development since the collapse of the Soviet Union, pointedly noted that Russian tanks are still deployed in South Ossetia nine years after Moscow invaded the region, and promised: “We are with you. We stand with you.”

A day earlier in Tallinn, he told the leaders of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, all NATO members, that the United States “stands firmly behind” the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense pledge and “rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation or malign influence in the Baltic States or against any of our treaty allies.”

Mr. Pence left no doubt why he regarded a united NATO as “more necessary today than at any point since the collapse of communism” a quarter century ago. “No threat looms larger in the Baltic States than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east,” he said, blaming Russia for continuing to “redraw international borders by force, undermine the democracies of sovereign nations and divide the free nations of Europe one against another.”