Marco Rubio struck a less contentious tone than JD Vance ahead of his speech at the Munich security conference on Saturday, calming fears of a repeat of the American vice-president’s verbal assault last year.
Rubio, secretary of state in the Trump administration, said the United States was “deeply tied to Europe” as he set off for Germany. Officials suggested he would take a less antagonistic approach than his Washington colleague, while similarly addressing the need to respond to a rapidly changing world.
Vance’s speech at the start of President Trump’s second term shocked leaders on the Continent with his blunt warning that the biggest threat to Europe was not Russia or China but “those sabotaging it from within”, highlighting mass immigration, censorship and woke politics.
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His comments were followed by the emergence of America First strategy documents dismissing Europe’s importance, demands for American control of Greenland and Trump’s downplaying of the contributions made by Nato allies.
JD Vance gave a controversial speech last year where he blamed Europe’s problems on “those sabotaging it from within”
ANDREAS STROH/ZUMA PRESS WIRE
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Before departing for Munich, Rubio said: “I think it’s at a defining moment … The world is changing very fast right in front of us. The old world is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era in geopolitics. And it’s going to require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be.”
He added that the United States was “deeply tied to Europe and our futures have always been linked and will continue to be. So we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like.”
While European leaders are watching for signs that Rubio will champion the US working with them, his speech will also be seen as a yardstick for 2028 and the direction of the Republican Party. Vance and Rubio are regarded as the frontrunners for the next Republican presidential nomination and Munich could show how each might act on the world stage.
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The annual conference has attracted half a dozen likely contenders for the Democratic nomination, a field led by Gavin Newsom, the California governor, and featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York congresswoman sometimes seen as a potential standard bearer for the left.
The 36-year-old Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as “AOC”, rarely appears on the international circuit and her acceptance of an invitation to speak has raised speculation that it will form part of a presidential plan, whether in 2028 or later.
Her team told NBC News she would provide a “working-class perspective” on the “intersection of domestic and foreign policy”, adding that the US had an important role to play around the world but that “military intervention is not the way to do that”.