Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the Munich Security Conference, told European leaders that the U.S. wants to work with their countries while still sticking to the Trump administration’s foreign policy goals.
In his speech Saturday, Rubio said Americans may come up as “a little direct and urgent in our counsel,” and that U.S. President Donald Trump “demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.” That’s because, he added, “we care deeply about your future and ours.”
“And if at times we disagree, our disagreements come from our profound sense of concern about a Europe with which we are connected — not just economically, not just militarily,” Rubio said. “We are connected spiritually and we are connected culturally. We want Europe to be strong.”
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This was a tonal shift from last year’s speech by JD Vance, during which the vice president heavily criticized Europe, to the shock of the audience.
The substance of the two speeches, though, were similar, as Rubio had his own criticisms of European policy. The secretary of state decried “mass migration,” which he called a “crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West.”
He urged Europe to, with the U.S., gain control of its countries’ orders, arguing it is not an “expression of xenophobia” or hate, but a “fundamental act of national sovereignty.”
And energy policies enacted “to appease a climate cult” impoverished the regions, Rubio said, “even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else — not just to power their economies, but to use as leverage against our own.”
Rubio also slammed what he characterized as a “a dogmatic vision of free and unfettered trade” that came after the Cold War.
Some nations, Rubio said, “protected their economies and subsidized their companies to systematically undercut ours,” which he blamed for the closing of plants, more jobs going overseas and societies being “deindustrialized.”
While Europe and the U.S can work together to reindustrialize their economies and rebuild their defense capabilities, he said a “new alliance” should not just focus on military cooperation and “reclaiming the industries of the past.”
“It should also be focused on, together, advancing our mutual interests and new frontiers, unshackling our ingenuity, our creativity and the dynamic spirit to build a new Western century,” Rubio said.
Reaction to Rubio’s Munich remarks
European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, at the conference, said she “was very much reassured” by Rubio’s speech.
“We know that in the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics, but the Secretary of State was very clear,” von der Leyen said. “He said we want a strong Europe in the alliance, and this is what we are working for intensively in the European Union.”
Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defense minister, said one of Rubio’s remarks, that America is a “child of Europe,” is “quite a bold statement.”
“It was a good speech, needed here today, but that doesn’t mean that we can rest on pillows now,” he told The Associated Press. “So still a lot of work has to be done.”
Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security for The Atlantic Council, said Rubio’s speech was well received, while noting that he “did not repudiate anything in Vice President JD Vance’s more pugnacious speech last year.”
Instead, Rubio “presented the same themes in a more positive light, focusing on shared challenges facing both Europe and the United States and how allies can work together to address them,” Kroenig said.
Dan Fried, a Weiser Family distinguished fellow for The Atlantic Council and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe, said Vance and Rubio’s speeches displayed the Trump administration’s “different impulses.” One of these, he said, is to “to pick new fights or engage in unresolvable culture wars,” Fried said. The other is to “take the win” when it comes to the larger argument.
What Rubio talked about on Saturday is a vision of “joint responsibility, shared responsibility and partnership,” Munich Security Conference Chair Wolfgang Ischinger said after the speech. Although Ischinger said it was a positive message, he added this does not mean all problems are solved.
“Of course, we come from a different cultural background, and that became clear again this morning with Margo Rubio presenting a starkly American way of looking at the world,” Ischinger said. “But that’s the essence of partnership. You’re as partners. You’re not identical, but you need to figure out common solutions.”
Some European officials have doubts
Politico reported that some European officials vented following Rubio’s speech that even though Rubio used softer language, the perception that the Trump administration wants Europe to be whiter and more right-leaning was still there.
“The underlying message was the same: We don’t want weak allies, don’t defend the old order,” said one former European official to Politico. “If the smallest common denominators the Americans can find are our common history going back to Columbus, narrow national security interests and common civilization, that alone shows how far apart Europe and the U.S. are drifting.”
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb was adamant that Trump’s slogan, Make America Great Again, is against the European Union.
“It means anti-liberal world order. It means anti-climate change. That’s the ideological undercurrent” guiding U.S. foreign policy, he said during an interview in the Politico Pub.
One European lawmaker noted to Politico that Rubio’s speech had a conciliatory approach, but he’s still traveling on Sunday and Monday to two countries that have gone in a more nationalist direction: Hungary and Slovakia.
“What kind of a signal is that?” the lawmaker asked.
