MUNICH (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a friendly and reassuring assessment of America’s relations with Europe under President Donald Trump’s administration, saying Saturday that the blunt tone of previous criticisms was intended to spur a renaissance in trans-Atlantic ties.
Rubio addressed the Munich Security Conference a year after Vice President JD Vance stunned the same audience with a harsh critique of European values. On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz opened this year’s gathering by calling for the United States and Europe to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together,” saying that even the U.S. isn’t powerful enough to go it alone in an world whose old order has withered.
Rubio argued that the “euphoria” of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a “dangerous delusion that we had entered ‘the end of history,’ that every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood … and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.”
Taking a much less confrontational approach than Vance last year, he acknowledged that the Trump administration has been pointedly direct in asserting its positions, but made clear that it won’t back off them.
“We made these mistakes together and now together we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild,” Rubio said.
“Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration,” he said. “This is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel. This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.”
“In a time of headlines heralding the end of the trans-Atlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish,” Rubio said. “Because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
“We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought and reconciled again. And we have bled and died side-by-side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar,” Rubio said. “And I’m here today to make it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity. and that once again, we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.”
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