{"id":468222,"date":"2026-02-14T12:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T12:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/468222\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T12:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T12:53:07","slug":"marco-rubio-reassures-americas-allies-at-munich-security-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/468222\/","title":{"rendered":"Marco Rubio reassures America\u2019s allies at Munich Security Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUNICH (AP) \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> offered a reassuring message to America\u2019s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration\u2019s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities after more than a year of President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies.<\/p>\n

Reminding his audience at the annual Munich Security Conference about America\u2019s centuries-long roots in Europe, Rubio said the United States would remain forever tied to the continent even as it pushes for changes in the relationship and the international institutions that have been the bulwark of the post-World War II world order.<\/p>\n

Rubio addressed the conference a year after Vice President JD Vance stunned the same audience<\/a> with a harsh critique of European values. A series of statements and moves<\/a> from the Trump administration targeting allies followed, including Trump\u2019s short-lived threat last month to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory<\/a> of NATO ally Denmark. <\/p>\n

On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a> had opened this year\u2019s gathering by calling for<\/a> the U.S. and Europe to \u201crepair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together,\u201d saying that even the U.S. isn\u2019t powerful enough to go it alone in an world whose old order no longer exists. But he and other European officials made clear that they will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.<\/p>\n

\u2018A child of Europe\u2019<\/p>\n

While offering a calmer and more reassuring tone than the one often heard over the past year, Rubio made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on policy. He denounced \u201ca climate cult\u201d and \u201can unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio argued that the \u201ceuphoria\u201d of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a \u201cdangerous delusion that we had entered \u2018the end of history,\u2019 that every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood … and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio said that an end of the trans-Atlantic era \u201cis neither our goal nor our wish,\u201d adding that \u201cour home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that \u201cwe have bled and died side-by-side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar,\u201d a contrast with disparaging remarks by Trump about NATO allies\u2019 troops in Afghanistan that drew an outcry<\/a>. \u201cAnd I\u2019m here today to make it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity. and that once again, we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. officials accompanying Rubio said his message was much the same as Vance\u2019s last year but was intended to have a softer landing on the audience, which they acknowledged had recoiled at much of Trump\u2019s rhetoric over the past year.<\/p>\n

Europeans reassured but not complacent<\/p>\n

The president of the European Union\u2019s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Rubio\u2019s speech was \u201cvery reassuring\u201d but noted that \u201cin the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics.\u201d <\/p>\n

In her speech to the conference, she stressed that \u201cEurope must become more independent,\u201d including on defense. She insisted on Europe\u2019s \u201cdigital sovereignty\u201d \u2014 its approach to hate speech on social media.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t get in the warm bath of complacency. He said the U.K. must re-forge closer ties with Europe to help the continent \u201cstand on our own two feet\u201d in its own defense, and said there needs to be investment that \u201cmoves us from overdependence to interdependence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanno Pevkur, the defense minister of EU and NATO member Estonia, said it was \u201cquite a bold statement to say that America is \u2018a child of Europe\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good speech, needed here today, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we can rest on pillows now,\u201d he told The Associated Press. \u201cSo still a lot of work has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference pointed to tensions beyond those in the trans-Atlantic alliance. <\/p>\n

Speaking after Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing felt \u201cgratified\u201d that Trump respects President Xi Jinping and China, but warned that some voices in the U.S. are leery of China\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that some forces and some people are still trying their best to suppress and contain China, and are still attacking and slandering China by any means,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n

He cautioned that \u201claw of the jungle and unilateralism have taken hold\u201d and said some countries \u201ceven revive the Cold War mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Moulson reported from Berlin. Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNICH (AP) \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a reassuring message to America\u2019s allies on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,550,144,34356,1930,12,1076,5335,10991,793,7261,217652,7590,6009,7672,643,3,59842,111,200479,21,792,19,22,20,5102,25,24,24646,800,965,6132],"class_list":["post-468222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-denmark","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-general-news","tag-greenland","tag-hanno-pevkur","tag-international-agreements","tag-jd-vance","tag-keir-starmer","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","tag-politics","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wang-yi","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}