WASHINGTON (TNND) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned the United States’ relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during an interview.
While being interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Rubio questioned what the point of the U.S. staying in NATO was if the country didn’t help the country when needed.
“I’ve been a supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate,” Rubio said during the interview, according to the Washington Examiner. “And one of the reasons why I supported NATO was because it gave us basing rights. It allowed us to have bases in Europe that we could use in a contingency, like something in the Middle East where you could have planes flying from some country in Europe and actually protecting our national interest in the Middle East, as an example, or in Africa.”
Rubio criticized countries for not being helpful to the U.S. during the Iran war, specifically Spain.
In March, the Spanish government denied the U.S. to use its military bases for attacks on Iran.
“And so when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases — when the primary reason why NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain, as an example — then what’s the purpose of the alliance?’ Rubio stated.
Italy has also denied the U.S. from using its air station for the war.
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However, Rubio did also praise some NATO countries for helping the U.S. “before we even asked,” such as Portugal, Poland and Romania.