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Rubio with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n in Budapest on Monday.Alex Brandon \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\nWhere Rubio went next may be the clearest sign of who the Trump administration sees as its true allies in Europe. <\/p>\n
After meeting with Fico in Slovakia the day after his speech, Rubio appeared alongside Orb\u00e1n early Monday to hail the importance of U.S. ties with Hungary’s nationalist leader. Orb\u00e1n’s hard-line stance on immigration and rejection of Western liberal values have been championed by conservative and hard-right movements in Europe and the United States, but he is nonetheless facing a serious challenge ahead of elections in April. <\/p>\n
The two nations also announced the signing of an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation. <\/p>\n
Rubio with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n in Budapest on Monday.Alex Brandon \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n
A senior U.S. visit to Hungary immediately following Munich can\u2019t be read simply as alliance maintenance, said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London. \u201cIt functions as an unmistakable signal of political affinity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slovakia is not institutionally identical to Hungary, but it is moving along a recognizably similar trajectory under Fico, he said. The U.S. engagement with those two leaders reads less as neutral diplomacy and more as reinforcement, and even encouragement, toward governments drifting in a similar direction, he added.<\/p>\n
Taken together, the order of Rubio\u2019s engagements in Europe send a clear message, Hellyer said \u2014 \u201crhetorical reassurance to Western Europe in Munich, followed by demonstrative outreach to Central European governments politically aligned \u2014 or aligning \u2014 with the ideological themes shaping contemporary MAGA foreign-policy thinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rubio said in his Munich speech that the Trump administration was driven by a \u201cvision of a future as proud, as sovereign, and as vital as our civilization\u2019s past.\u201d <\/p>\n
He referenced Christian faith as \u201ca sacred inheritance\u201d and \u201cunbreakable link between the Old World and the new.\u201d Like Vance, he also criticized \u201cdestabilizing\u201d mass migration and urged Europeans to regain control of their national borders. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
He was speaking to a room filled with officials from France, Germany, Britain and other nations long seen as America’s closest allies. But on Monday Rubio was hailing the U.S. commitment to Orb\u00e1n and endorsing the euroskeptic strongman for another term in office.<\/p>\n