Rubio casts US, the ‘child of Europe’, as critical friend to allies

MUNICH – Secretary of State Marco Rubio cast the United States as the “child of Europe” in a message of unity on Feb 14, offering some reassurance as well as levelling more criticism at allies after a year of turmoil in transatlantic relations.

Mr Rubio was addressing the annual Munich Security Conference, where Europe’s leading powers have tried to project their own independence and strength while straining to keep a long-time alliance with the US under President Donald Trump alive.

The speech delivered a degree of respite to European countries who fear being left in the lurch on anything from the war in Ukraine to international trade ructions in a rapidly shifting global order.

But it was short on concrete commitments and made no mention of Russia, raising questions about whether Mr Rubio’s tone, more emollient than that of Vice-President J.D. Vance at the same event a year ago, would change the underlying dynamics.

“In a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish, because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” Mr Rubio said.

“For the United States and Europe, we belong together,” he said in the speech, which drew a standing ovation at the end.

While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “very much reassured” by the speech and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called Mr Rubio a “true partner”, others struck a more cautious tone.

“I am not sure that Europeans see the announced civilisational decline, supposedly caused mainly by migration and deindustrialisation, as a core uniting interest. For most Europeans, the common interest is security,” said Mr Gabrielius Landsbergis, former foreign minister of NATO member Lithuania.

“This was not a departure from the general position of the (Trump) administration. It was simply delivered in more polite terms,” he said on X.

One particular area of anxiety is Ukraine, where allies have long worried about Mr Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin trying to ram through a deal on Moscow’s terms and force Kyiv to cede land to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

On Feb 14, five European allies accused Russia of killing Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

using venom from poison dart frogs

while he was held in an Arctic penal colony two years ago. Russia has repeatedly denied responsibility for his death.

The findings, attributed to analyses of samples taken from Navalny’s body, were released while Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya was attending the Munich conference. “I was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof,” she said on social media.

US-brokered peace talks resume next week in Geneva after a sustained bombardment of Ukrainian cities during one of the coldest winters in years killed civilians and left hundreds of thousands of people without power and water.

President Volodymyr Zelensky

expressed hope at the conference

on Feb 14 but said he was feeling “a little bit” of pressure from Mr Trump, who had said Mr Zelensky should not miss the “opportunity” to make peace soon.

“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” Mr Zelensky said.

Rubio hits out at West’s ‘managed decline’

The Munich conference of top security leaders has been dominated this year by how countries are scrambling to adjust to a year of confrontations with Mr Trump on issues from tariffs to

his threat to wrest Greenland

from fellow NATO member Denmark.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the transatlantic alliance depended on the predictability and reliability of the US.

“Questioning the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a NATO member state. Excluding European allies from negotiations that are crucial to the security on the continent. All this damages our alliance and strengthens our adversaries,” he said.

A 2025 address by Mr Vance,

a potential rival to Mr Rubio in the 2028 US presidential race, dressed down European allies, arguing the greatest danger to Europe came from censorship and democratic backsliding rather than external threats like Russia.

While praising Europe’s cultural achievements from the artist Michelangelo to the poet William Shakespeare, Mr Rubio also touched on themes that have raised hackles, including criticism of mass migration and zealous action on climate change.

“We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker,” he said.

“For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he could see why Mr Rubio’s appeal to a common legacy had drawn applause.

“Is it going to change our strategy? Of course not. Because, you know, what we’re hearing today, we heard already in the past,” Mr Barrot said. REUTERS