Munich (Germany) (AFP) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to reassure a nervous Europe on Saturday, saying that Washington wanted to recharge the transatlantic alliance so that a strong Europe could help the US on its mission of global “renewal.” Speaking at a security conference in Munich after months of turmoil in US-European relations sparked by US President Donald Trump’s vows to seize Greenland and his often derisive remarks about US allies, Washington’s top diplomat struck a markedly soothing tone.
“We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history,” Rubio said, calling for “a reinvigorated alliance.” “We want Europe to be strong,” Rubio added, saying that the continent and the US “belong together.” He echoed the Trump administration’s oft-stated assertion that immigration posed a threat, saying that “mass migration” was “a crisis which is transforming and destabilising societies all across the West.” He expressed hope that Europe “together with us are willing and able to defend it.”
Aside from immigration, Rubio otherwise largely avoided the MAGA flashpoint and culture war issues that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday had deepened a “rift” between the US and Europe. Rubio’s speech marked a sharp contrast to that of US Vice President JD Vance a year ago, when he used the same stage to attack European policies on a range of issues, shocking European allies. The Trump administration has also charged that Europe faced a “civilisational decline” and has courted far-right parties on the continent. Ties plunged last month when Trump stepped up threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, forcing European nations to stand firm in protest. Rubio was scheduled to travel to Slovakia and Hungary, European countries run by nationalist leaders endorsed by Trump.
Some breathed a sigh of relief following Rubio’s speech, with Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur telling AFP, “it was needed to show that we are still allies and partners.” But others said they did not mark a shift in the US stance, with former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis commenting, “it was simply delivered in more polite terms. I am not sure the white paint will hold.”
European leaders at the Munich Security Conference have pledged to shoulder more of the burden of shared NATO defences, saying this was essential for Europe to counter a hostile Russia. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the gathering on Saturday that “Europe needs to step up and has to take on its responsibility” for its security, including closer ties with Britain ten years after Brexit. British leader Keir Starmer echoed the sentiment, stating, “We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age,” and called for a building of “a shared industrial base across Europe which can turbocharge our defence production.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters that although France and Britain, Europe’s only nuclear powers, have discussed greater cooperation to make their nuclear deterrence stronger, “nobody is arguing in Europe to do this as a sort of replacement of the nuclear umbrella of the United States.”
The high-powered Munich meeting of government leaders, diplomats, defence, and intelligence chiefs comes shortly before Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is set to enter its fifth gruelling year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried that political efforts to end the war have not worked. “Weapons evolve faster than political decisions meant to stop them,” he said, calling for speedier arms deliveries for Ukraine’s Western-supplied air defence systems.
He noted that “there is not a single power plant in Ukraine that is not damaged by Russian strikes” after Russia stepped up its attacks on infrastructure over the past few months, coinciding with the coldest snap since the war started in February 2022. “No one in Ukraine believes (Russian President Vladimir Putin) will ever let our people go, but he will not let other European nations go either, because he cannot let go of the very idea of war,” Zelensky warned.
At the White House on Friday, Trump urged Kyiv to “get moving” to end the war. “Russia wants to make a deal…He has to move,” the US leader said. However, Rubio stated on Saturday that “We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war.”
© 2024 AFP
