{"id":300156,"date":"2026-02-16T01:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300156\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:12:07","slug":"trump-friendly-hungary-and-slovakia-key-components-of-us-eu-relations-says-rubio-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300156\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-friendly Hungary and Slovakia \u2018key components\u2019 of US-EU relations, says Rubio \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US secretary of state Marco Rubio <\/a>has named Slovakia and Hungary, headed by Trump-friendly leaders, as a \u201ckey component\u201d in Washington\u2019s future engagement with Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rubio <\/a>meets Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n in Budapest on Monday after warning EU leaders in Munich that the US was interested in allies \u201cnot paralysed into inaction by fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Slovakia on Sunday, Rubio said <\/a>the Trump administration expected \u201cevery country in the world to act in their national interest; that is what countries are supposed to do. When our national interests are aligned … \u200bthis is an extraordinary opportunity for co-operation and partnership.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also promised Slovakia and Hungary \u201cconcrete actions that we will take together in ways that are beneficial to your people and our people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back in Munich, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas <\/a>welcomed as \u201cimportant\u201d Rubio\u2019s message that the US and Europe are \u201cintertwined\u201d <\/a>but said it was \u201calso clear that we don\u2019t see eye to eye on all issues and this will remain the case\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rubio spares Europe a Valentine\u2019s Day massacreOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She dismissed as \u201cfashionable Euro-bashing\u201d claims by Rubio, echoing others in the Trump administration, that Europe\u2019s political establishment was pushing the Continent to a cultural and economic abyss.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

As for US claims that free speech in Europe is endangered by political correctness, she added: \u201cComing from a country that is number two in the press freedom index, hearing criticism from a country that is 58 in the same index … is interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her remarks concluded a tense transatlantic standoff over the weekend in Munich<\/a>, where attending EU leaders welcomed Rubio\u2019s conciliatory tone but remained wary of the conditions he offered for co-operation with the US.<\/p>\n

While EU leaders in Munich <\/a>offered polite resistance, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, who visited Trump last month in Florida, told Rubio in Bratislava that the EU was in \u201cdeep crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Orb\u00e1n, whose April re-election is not assured, stayed away from Munich to launch a weekend series of campaign broadsides against the \u201coppressive machinery\u201d of the EU.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0US destiny \u2018intertwined\u2019 with Europe, but with caveats, says RubioOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFear-mongering about Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, however, is a palpable reality and a source of imminent danger,\u201d said Orb\u00e1n in a state-of-the-nation address drawing parallels between the EU and the Soviet regime that dominated postwar Hungarian life for decades.<\/p>\n

Rubio is expected to endorse Orb\u00e1n in person on Monday\u2019s visit, echoing last week\u2019s online endorsement by Trump of Orb\u00e1n as a \u201ctruly strong and powerful leader\u201d. <\/p>\n

As Hungary\u2019s election campaign enters top gear, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party is trailing eight points in polls. Before leaving Munich, Rubio told Bloomberg that the Trump administration was still hopeful of reaching a peaceful settlement with Tehran. As 250,000 exiled Iranians demonstrated for regime change in Munich on Saturday, Rubio insisted the US had, if need be, \u201csufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don\u2019t make a mistake and come after us and trigger something larger\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US secretary of state Marco Rubio has named Slovakia and Hungary, headed by Trump-friendly leaders, as a \u201ckey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,2244,61,60,20878,142136,20966,90,1841],"class_list":{"0":"post-300156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-marco-rubio","14":"tag-robert-fico","15":"tag-trump-presidency","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-viktor-orban"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300156","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=300156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}