Rubio gives Europe a Valentine’s bouquet, but the roses still have thorns
What a difference a year makes. Or is it?
Twelve months ago US Vice President J.D. Vance stormed into the Munich Security Conference to warn Europe that it was destroying democracy through restrictions on freedom of expression, censorship of social media and the embrace of unchecked immigrants who did not share his lifestyle.
His dark speech, delivered just weeks after his rise to power, alarmed his European audience, warning that “there’s a new sheriff in town” under President Donald Trump.
This year the messenger was different — Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and the rhetoric was different, too. “The United States and Europe, we belong together,” Rubio said. “Ultimately, our fate is and always will be intertwined with yours. We know that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own.”
Rubio directly denied headlines that the United States was trying to end the transatlantic alliance. “This is neither our goal nor our wish,” he said. “For us Americans, our home may be the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
MSC president Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany’s former ambassador to Europe, told Rubio that there was an audible “relief” in the room during his speech, calling it a “message of confidence.”
This may be a case of hearing what you want to hear.
Rubio’s language may have been more conciliatory than Vance’s, but he touched on much the same themes and priorities.
The reason Americans can sometimes seem “a little direct and urgent in our advice” is because they are so deeply concerned about the direction of Europe, Rubio said.
The most urgent was the scourge of mass immigration; this was not a trivial concern but “a crisis destabilizing societies throughout the West.”
Rubio said controlling immigration is not hateful or xenophobic. On the contrary, “failure to do so is not merely an abdication of one of the most fundamental duties we owe to our people, it is an immediate threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization.”
It was no different than this What we hear from Opposition Leader Angus Taylor In his first speech to the Australian public on Friday, he promised to close the door on immigrants who “hate our way of life”.
Rubio was speaking harshly about what he described as a Western civilization racked by guilt and shame rather than proud of its history, ancestors, language, Christian faith and shared sacrifices.
The West, he said, is also very afraid: afraid of war, afraid of technology and afraid of climate change, which he described as a “cult”, echoing the language of his boss.
Rubio said the so-called rules-based global order, which prioritizes a set of international laws and norms over the use of raw power, is an “overused term.” The idea of a world without borders where everyone is a global citizen was a “stupid idea” [that] It cost us dearly.” The idea of free and unfettered trade was an illusion exploited by the enemies of the West.
Where Rubio differed slightly from Trump and Vance was the degree to which he acknowledged that the same mistakes were made by the United States.
“We made these mistakes together,” he said, “and now we owe it to our people to face these truths, move forward and rebuild together.”
Rubio’s remarks come on the heels of arguably the most important speech on the world stage in recent memory: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s statement in Davos last month that there was a “rupture in the world order” and that middle powers like Canada or Australia must chart a new path.
Although Carney did not mention Trump by name, he was clearly taking aim at the US president’s subversion of global norms and institutions.
Rubio said these old institutions do not need to be torn down, but they need to be reformed and rebuilt. Noting the impotence of the United Nations, he argued that it played “almost no role” in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine, limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, or ending the tyranny of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro—all of which were orchestrated by the United States.
“In a perfect world, all these problems would be solved through diplomats and strongly worded decisions. But we do not live in a perfect world,” Rubio said.
One might quibble about the actions of the United States — particularly its stance toward Russia and Vladimir Putin — but Rubio is right to say that Washington is always the only horse trying.
Later, participating in a panel discussion in Munich, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was asked about the apparent death throes of the rules-based world order.
He said rules and their enforcement can never be separated from pure force. But he viewed Rubio’s words as a happy middle ground.
“What Secretary Rubio said today was that there was an order that we shouldn’t repeal, that we should repair, but that we shouldn’t repeal, and I think it’s good to remember that,” Marles said. “We should not easily give up on the idea of what rules can do.”
Neither Europe nor the rest of the world should feel that they are off the hook. Rubio speaks with more diplomatic grace than Vance, but the gist is the same.
He may have given Europe a Valentine’s Day bouquet, but the roses were still full of thorns.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
