Secretary of State Rubio says U.S. and European interests are ‘intertwined’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the United States has no intention of abandoning its close alliance with Europe and wants the region to succeed.

“We care deeply about you and our future,” Rubio told the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

“We want Europe to be strong,” he said. “We believe that Europe must survive, because the two great wars of the last century serve as a great historical reminder that ultimately our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours.”

US President Donald Trump has frequently criticized Europe for being too dependent on the US for security and has urged NATO allies to increase defense spending. His pursuit of ownership of Greenland, a Danish territory, has also rattled European leaders in recent months.

“We don’t have to abandon the system of international cooperation that we built, we don’t have to dismantle the old order global institutions that we built together. But they have to be reformed. They have to be rebuilt,” Rubio said.

The top US diplomat told assembled European leaders that the US leadership had succeeded in resolving thorny issues such as the Israel-Gaza conflict and had made progress in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, where multilateral institutions including the United Nations had previously failed.

“While the United Nations still has great potential to be an instrument for global good, we cannot ignore that it has no answers and is playing virtually no role in the most pressing issues before us today. The United Nations could not resolve the war in Gaza,” Rubio said. “Instead, it was American leadership that freed prisoners of war from the barbarians and brought about a fragile ceasefire. The Ukraine war is not resolved.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed gratitude for the United States’ support in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“We are grateful for the hearts of all Americans who helped us no matter what. Thank you. Without you, Americans, Europeans and all the people who support us, it would have been very difficult to hold on,” President Zelenskiy said to applause.

But he criticized the former Trump administration for being slow to increase military aid to Ukraine.

President Zelensky also had harsh words for the Iranian government, which Russia accused of supplying drones used to attack Ukrainian territory.

“Ukraine does not share a border with Iran and there has never been a conflict of interest with the Iranian regime,” President Zelensky said. “But the Iranian Shahed drones that they sold to Russia are killing our citizens, especially Ukrainians, and destroying our infrastructure.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, speaking next to President Zelensky, called on member states to step up military support to Ukraine under the alliance’s Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative.

“Keep (Ukraine) strong in the fight. They will do it, but they need our support,” Rutte said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking after Rubio at the conference, said the region faced “a clear threat of external forces seeking to undermine our alliance from within, a resurgence of openly hostile competition and power relations.”

Von der Leyen said Europe needed to become more independent “in all aspects that affect security and prosperity, defense and energy, economy and trade, raw materials and digital technologies.”

However, she stressed that this does not mean weakening transatlantic ties.

“The opposite is true, and we just heard it from Secretary Rubio. An independent Europe is a strong Europe, and a strong Europe produces a stronger transatlantic alliance.”

On Friday, the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kalas, appealed to European leaders to stand up to Russian aggression.

“The lesson learned is that appeasement always leads to new wars,” Karas said in an interview with CNBC. “That’s obvious. If you think so, then all right, let’s let them have this territory. … There will be a peace that never really works out. It actually increases the appetite. They walk away with more territory and more valuables than before.”

The group’s president, Wolfgang Issinger, also said in an interview with CNBC on Friday ahead of the conference that Europe’s diminished power on the world stage was “its own fault.”

“Europe has failed to speak with one voice to and about China, and has failed to come up with a clear vision for the future of the Middle East, including how to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue,” said Issinger, a former German ambassador to the United States.

Earlier this week, the MSC released its 2026 report, for which Issinger wrote the foreword. The paper warned that “the world has entered an era of wrecking ball politics” and that “total destruction…is the order of the day.”

The report said Trump “is at the vanguard of those who promise to free their country from the constraints of the existing order and rebuild it stronger and more prosperous,” arguing that he is just one of a movement “driven by resentment and regret over the liberal trajectory on which society has embarked.”

Issinger said European countries were “completely onlookers” in negotiations around Gaza and Ukraine.

Rubio said the U.S. wants a “reinvigorated alliance” with Europe, “one that doesn’t maintain the polite pretense that our way of life is just one of many and asks permission before we act.”

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr. Rubio criticized past policies that encouraged mass immigration, outsourced supply chains and fostered “hollowing out of industry,” which he called “inevitable.”

“This was a conscious policy choice, a decades-long economic undertaking that robbed our nation of its wealth, productive capacity, and independence. And the loss of sovereignty over our nation’s supply chains was not a function of a prosperous and healthy global trading system. It was stupid,” Rubio said.

Mr. Rubio also discussed how increased transatlantic cooperation can reposition Western countries to lead industries in the 21st century.

“Together, we can reindustrialize our economy and rebuild our ability to protect our people.”

“Commercial space travel and cutting-edge artificial intelligence, industrial automation and flexible manufacturing, building Western supply chains for critical minerals that are not vulnerable to extortion from other countries, and a unified effort to compete for market share in the economies of the Global South.”