{"id":297792,"date":"2026-02-14T13:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/297792\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T13:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:19:07","slug":"marco-rubio-says-us-destiny-intertwined-with-europe-but-with-caveats-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/297792\/","title":{"rendered":"Marco Rubio says US destiny \u2018intertwined\u2019 with Europe, but with caveats \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> has said Washington will retain Europe as a key partner if it reverses \u201cfoolish but voluntary\u201d policies on security, trade, migration and a \u201cclimate<\/a> cult\u201d.<\/p>\n

A year ago, US vice-president JD Vance<\/a> upbraided European leaders at the Munich Security Conference<\/a> for embracing what he called the politics of \u201ccivilisation erasure\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Rubio repeated many of the same arguments but in a more upbeat language, insisting the destiny of the US \u201cis and always will be intertwined with yours\u201d.<\/p>\n

A visibly relieved conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger called it a message of \u201creassurance and partnership\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Rubio\u2019s offer of transatlantic co-operation was conditional, reflected in EU leaders\u2019 stony faces and uncertain applause.<\/p>\n

While Europeans remained seated, US delegates gave Rubio a standing ovation, suggesting the strained transatlantic relationship is not yet off the critical list.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West\u2019s managed decline,\u201d said Rubio. \u201cWe do not seek to separate but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief US diplomat insisted that US president Donald Trump\u2019s offer of co-operation in the 21st century hinged on Europe\u2019s readiness to reverse post-1989 failings, in particular that the rules-based order, \u201can overused term, would now replace the national interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

This \u201cdogmatic idea of free and unfettered trade\u201d ignored, he said, the path of human history \u2013 on nation states and borders \u2013 and offered no solutions when others subverted the rules-based order to undercut western economies and create new dependencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeindustrialisation was not inevitable, it was a conscious policy choice, a decades-long economic undertaking that stripped our nations of their wealth, of their productive capacity and of their independence,\u201d said Rubio.<\/p>\n

As well as free trade, Trump\u2019s chief diplomat challenged the prevailing western order that, he said, sacrificed its citizens\u2019 economic welfare to \u201cappease a climate cult\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s America, he said, was not interested in such allies, nor would it work with countries trapped in a vicious circle of \u201cbad policies and a malaise of hopelessness and complacency … paralysed by inaction and fear\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made these mistakes together and now, together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and move forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Trump path ahead to control immigration, Rubio said, was \u201cnot an expression of xenophobia\u201d but a \u201cfundamental act of national sovereignty\u201d and the failure on this front is an \u201curgent threat to the fabric of societies and the survival of our civilisations\u201d.<\/p>\n

A year into the second Trump term, Rubio said the US viewed itself as a \u201cchild of Europe\u201d, built by Italian forefathers, German settlers and the \u201chardy clan from the hills of Ulster\u201d whose descendants included Theodore Roosevelt and Neil Armstrong: \u201cWe are part of one civilisation, western civilisation. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds nations can share.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Trump administration was interested in European allies that shared this pride in its achievements, added Rubio, not allies \u201cthat exist to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations\u201d.<\/p>\n

He name-checked the United Nations as evidence of the West\u2019s broken status quo: unable to solve crises in Gaza or Ukraine or tackle Iran\u2019s nuclear proliferation until the US intervened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow those who endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law that they routinely violate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After his address that was notable for what it excluded \u2013 Venezuela, the Middle East, Sudan \u2013 Rubio was asked whether he thought Russia was playing for time in peace talks with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In advance of a third round of negotiations next week in Geneva, Rubio said it was impossible to say for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone in this room would be against a negotiated settlement to this war,\u201d he said, \u201cas long as the conditions are just and sustainable\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said Washington will retain Europe as a key partner if it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5461,20878,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-297792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-jd-vance","10":"tag-marco-rubio","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}