U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday offered a reassuring message to European allies, saying Washington wanted to recharge the transatlantic alliance so Europe could help the U.S.’ mission of global “renewal”, after more than a year of President Donald Trump’s often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies.
Speaking at a security conference in Munich after months of turmoil in U.S.-European relations sparked by Trump's vows to seize Greenland and his often derisive remarks about U.S. allies, Washington's top diplomat struck a markedly soothing tone.
"We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history," Rubio said, calling for "a reinvigorated alliance."
"We want Europe to be strong," Rubio said, adding that the continent and the U.S. "belong together."
He echoed Trump administration's oft-stated assertion that immigration posed a threat, saying that "mass migration" was "a crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West."
He said that Europe and the U.S. were "heirs to the same great and noble civilization" and that he hoped Europe "together with us are willing and able to defend it."
Aside from immigration, Rubio otherwise largely avoided the MAGA flashpoint and culture war issues that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, had deepened a "rift" between U.S. and Europe.
Rubio's speech marked a sharp contrast to that of U.S. Vice President JD Vance a year ago, when he used the same stage to attack European policies on a range of issues including free speech, shocking European allies.
U.S.-Europe ties were further strained by the new U.S. National Security Strategy, which launched an unprecedented attack against Europeans, charging that the continent was threatened with "civilizational decline" and by the Trump administration's courting of far-right parties.
Ties plunged last month when Trump stepped up threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, forcing European nations to stand firm in protest.
Rubio was on Sunday due to travel to Slovakia and Hungary, European countries run by nationalist leaders endorsed by Trump.
Some breathed a sigh of relief following Rubio's speech, with Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur telling AFP "it was needed to show that we are still allies and partners."
But others said they did not mark a shift in the U.S. stance, with former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis saying "it was simply delivered in more polite terms. I am not sure the white paint will hold."
European leaders at the Munich Security Conference have pledged to shoulder more of the burden of shared NATO defenses, saying this was essential for Europe to counter a hostile Russia.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the gathering on Saturday that "Europe needs to step up and has to take on its responsibility" for its security, including closer ties with Britain 10 years after Brexit.
British leader Keir Starmer echoed the sentiment, saying "We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age," calling for a building of "a shared industrial base across Europe which can turbocharge our defence production".
The high-powered Munich meeting of government leaders, diplomats, defence and intelligence chiefs comes shortly before Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine is set to enter its fifth grueling year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried that political efforts to end the war have not worked.
"Weapons evolve faster than political decisions meant to stop them," he said, calling for speedier arms deliveries for Ukraine's Western-supplied air defence systems.
"No one in Ukraine believes (Russian President Vladimir Putin) will ever let our people go, but he will not let other European nations go either, because he cannot let go of the very idea of war," Zelensky warned.
At the White House on Friday, Trump urged Kyiv to "get moving" to end the war. "Russia wants to make a deal... He has to move," the U.S. leader said.
But Rubio said on Saturday that "We don't know if the Russians are serious about ending the war."
Rubio renewed the Trump administration's criticism of the United Nations, saying that "it has no answers and has played virtually no role" on the most pressing conflicts like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
