{"id":338325,"date":"2026-02-15T07:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/338325\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T07:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:36:17","slug":"mcentee-upbeat-following-conciliatory-us-position-on-european-relations-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/338325\/","title":{"rendered":"McEntee upbeat following \u2018conciliatory\u2019 US position on European relations \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> has welcomed a renewed and \u201cconciliatory\u201d US<\/a> commitment to the transatlantic relationship and signs that Washington is open to reform the United Nations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

At the Munich Security Conference<\/a> (MSC) on Saturday, dominated by the ongoing Russia<\/a>–Ukraine<\/a> war and the future of Iran<\/a>, McEntee did not rule out the possibility Ireland could sign up to a French<\/a> proposal to extend its nuclear shield<\/a> to protect other nations.<\/p>\n

McEntee was upbeat after US secretary of State Rubio\u2019s address<\/a>, describing Europe<\/a> as an essential partner for the US. However, Rubio said Europe must follow the Trump<\/a> administration\u2019s shifts on security, economics and migration policy \u2013 and abandon its \u201cclimate cult\u201d.<\/p>\n

McEntee said this echoed views of other Trump administration officials she met recently in Washington, that \u201cthere are challenges but that the relationship between the US and EU is essential\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his speech was conciliatory, though there were clearly conflicts still there,\u201d she said. \u201cHe talked about climate change as if it was not real. You only have to look at home and see people\u2019s cars under water in the last week to know that the environment is changing and that we really do need to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEntee said the last tense year in transatlantic relations, from trade threats to the Greenland<\/a> crisis, \u201chas shown us how much more we need to be united … and more ambitious in Ireland and in the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope is united and needs to stay united and needs to step up when it comes to our overall security.\u201d <\/p>\n

In his address Rubio said the US had intervened in Gaza<\/a>, Ukraine<\/a>, Venezuela<\/a> and elsewhere in part as response to a \u201cpowerless\u201d UN.<\/p>\n

Unlike more derogatory Trump administration remarks in the past, however, McEntee took heart at how Rubio said the UN \u201cstill has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I took it, he said it needs to be reformed,\u201d said McEntee. \u201cThe UN has served us extremely well … but we all agree that there is change and reform needed to reform it from within to reflect the world we live in now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid ongoing concerns over Russia, and its future ambitions in Europe, McEntee did not rule out Ireland being part of a French-lead nuclear deterrent shield, as floated by French president Emmanuel Macron<\/a> on Friday. She said this could fit into a broader push \u2013 backed by the Government<\/a> and the wider population \u2013 to participate more in common European security plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we can within our Constitution, within our parameters, where we can do more and be part of more, that\u2019s where I want us to be,\u201d she said. \u201cAnything that is proposed, there will always be a need for us to look and see if this is something we can be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEntee said the upcoming maritime security strategy would address growing security and environmental concerns over a Russian-steered \u201cshadow fleet\u201d in European waters.<\/p>\n

The Minister said strategy would \u201cmost likely be boarding [a] ship as opposed to seizing it\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said Ireland was open, too, to tapping EU funding pots to become a player in the defence field \u2013 in particular drone and drone-countering capabilities \u2013 without impacting the country\u2019s tradition of neutrality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a defence sector for all the obvious reasons,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it is not to say that we cannot have businesses in Ireland involved in the defence sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Government and Oireachtas dependency on Microsoft<\/a> software and web services, McEntee said such platforms were \u201chugely beneficial and allow us to do more than we have ever done before, but there are risks to it\u201d.<\/p>\n

European digital sovereignty has featured prominently this year in Munich, following accusations by the International Court of Justice that Microsoft<\/a> blocked service access to a chief prosecutor facing US sanctions \u2013 charges the US company denies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about diversifying, not moving away from any one company, brand or platform,\u201d said McEntee, \u201cand making sure we have the right types of structures to mitigate those impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

In bilateral meetings McEntee flagged Ireland\u2019s ambitions in its upcoming EU presidency on Ukraine and in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will use our voice and do what we can on Ukraine,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

On the postwar situation in Israel<\/a>, McEntee described as \u201cappalling that Israel was not allowing enough humanitarian aid into the West Bank<\/a>\u201d. Though Ireland would not join the Trump-lead Board of Peace, and its efforts in the region, McEntee said: \u201cWe want to be as active and engaged as we can, given our past history\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Munich McEntee met the foreign ministers of Iceland, Moldova and Palestine and the defence ministers of Lithuania and Switzerland as well as United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East (Unrwa) and Kent Walker, Google<\/a>\u2019s president of global affairs and chief legal officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has welcomed a renewed and \u201cconciliatory\u201d US commitment to the transatlantic relationship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,356,18,6586,2219,13,14,2220,3761,6621,823,6,14370,6904,19,18929,17,71,11,12,7253,15,16,6587,305,33111,5,4766,72,550,2423,7,8,2264,384,2863,107,4450,1918],"class_list":["post-338325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-eire","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-european-union","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-france","tag-gaza-strip","tag-germany","tag-google","tag-headlines","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-iceland","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-lithuania","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-marco-rubio","tag-microsoft","tag-moldova","tag-news","tag-oireachtas","tag-palestine","tag-russia","tag-switzerland","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-united-states","tag-united-nations-un","tag-us","tag-venezuela","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}