Mr Vance delivered a caustic speech<\/a> trumpeting the supposed decline of Europe as a bunch of weak losers. He offered offensive claims that Europe was suppressing freedom of speech and democracy and also facing civilisational decline.<\/p>\n Munich conference highlights improving US-Europe relations<\/p>\n Europe has plenty of problems, but European nations generally are happier and healthier than their friends in the US, according to endless research papers on happiness and well-being. At the time, the Vance speech told us more about Mr Vance than it did about Europe.<\/p>\n This year, however, Mr Rubio was mostly well-received. His criticisms were delivered much more diplomatically, although the sugar coating still contained a bitter pill.<\/p>\n The sugar was Mr Rubio\u2019s remark about the US being Europe\u2019s \u201cchild\u201d and their fates would always be \u201cintertwined\u201d. Cue applause from the Europeans. But the supposed \u201cchild\u201d has definitely grown up and Mr Rubio treated the European \u201cfamily\u201d to a lecture.<\/p>\n He insisted that the US was rebuilding the world according to its values. These he said included Christianity and a shared cultural heritage<\/a>, closing borders and dropping climate crisis policies. The implication was that Europeans needed to change their ways or else \u2026 although it was not entirely clear what the \u201cor else\u201d concept might mean. Perhaps it means that Mr Vance will be back with another harangue at Munich next year.<\/p>\n The simple fact is that there is much common ground and also some very significant differences between Europe and US President Donald Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n Germany is re-arming and re-invigorating Nato, but Chancellor Friedrich Merz clearly distanced himself from the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cculture wars\u201d. The same was true of French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n In their big speeches, the European leaders also tended to avoid publicly expressing their enormous disappointment over Mr Trump\u2019s attitude towards Denmark and its government of Greenland.<\/p>\n Europe has plenty of problems, but European nations generally are happier and healthier than their friends in the US<\/p>\n When I have talked to British and European national security experts, they all agree that the Trump White House has reasonable and extremely important security concerns about the Arctic. But they also all agree that the way these concerns have been handled is the worst of megaphone diplomacy<\/a>. Bullying friends and allies is generally counterproductive.<\/p>\n Moreover, the Arctic is strategically important to all of Nato, not just America. Ask Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney or the British or Scandinavians. Denmark and Greenlanders want an amicable settlement and a secure Arctic with America deeply involved.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, behind the scenes as the key figures at the Munich conference return home, the biggest and most immediately dangerous security question remained unresolved \u2013 Ukraine.<\/p>\n One of the defence experts attending the conference pointed out to me that Russia\u2019s casualty rate is now estimated at about 1.2 million of dead and wounded. This is an astonishing figure even for a large country. Ukraine has suffered horrendously, too, but Russia has not \u201cwon the war\u201d and most European nations do not want<\/a> Russia to win the peace either.<\/p>\n Ukraine insists it will not cede unoccupied territory, and all this behind-the-scenes diplomacy comes as western intelligence agencies publicly revealed that Alexander Navalny, the Russian opposition leader jailed by the Kremlin, was murdered while in a Russian penal colony.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/media\/bBarJHaF\/poster.jpg\")
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