Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to reporters ahead of his upcoming visit to Munich, where he is scheduled to attend an important conference. When asked about the message he plans to deliver in Munich, Rubio said, "Well, you’ve got to wait till Saturday. Right, Saturday? It’ll be good. It will be good. I think it will be well received. We’ll see."
Rubio emphasized that European leaders are looking for clarity on the direction of U.S. policy and its partnership with Europe. He stated, "I think they want – honestly, they want to know where we’re going, where we’d like to go, where we’d like to go with them. So that’s our hope. It’s an important conference, my third time, twice as Secretary of State. We’ll have a lot of members of Congress here, so – as well. I’ll see them tomorrow as well."
He reflected on global changes and the need for renewed dialogue with allies: "So it’s important, and 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 that I grew up in – and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to sort of reexamine what that looks like and what our role is going to be... And I think Saturday, hopefully, and the meetings we’ll have there will move us in that direction."
Asked about Greenland potentially being discussed at the conference, Rubio responded: "Oh, I’m sure somebody will raise it." He added regarding ongoing efforts: "We’re working on that. We feel good about it."
When questioned about meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his trip, Rubio replied: "I think so. I think he was going to be there, and there’s a chance to see him. I believe it’s on my schedule. I’m not 100 percent certain, but I’m sure we will."
On Russia's military actions during winter conditions in Ukraine, Rubio commented: "It’s terrible. It’s a war. That’s why we want the war to end. People are suffering. It’s the coldest time of year. It’s unimaginable suffering... That’s why wars are bad, and that’s why we have worked so hard for over a year now to try to bring this one to an end."
Rubio also addressed his planned meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and officials from Slovakia: "Well, the President said he’s very supportive of him [Orban], and so are we... They came to the U.S.... We told them that when I had an opportunity I would visit... We’re also going to go by Slovakia... So it just made sense to sort of tack it onto this trip."
He acknowledged multiple recent transatlantic trips: "Yeah, that’s right," noting this would be his third crossing within a week.
Responding to whether these visits send a message about U.S.-European relations or disengagement concerns following other international events such as the Olympics hosted abroad this year (https://olympics.com/en/), Rubio said: "Europe's important to us... We’re very tightly linked to Europe... So we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like."
Regarding energy discussions with Hungary and Slovakia related to Russian imports (https://www.iea.org/reports/russian-supplies-to-global-energy-markets), Rubio noted: "Well, we’ll have those conversations with them. We’ll talk to them about what needs to happen." He added praise for bilateral cooperation: "...these are countries that are very strong with us, very cooperative with the United States..."
The Secretary concluded by highlighting the significance of continued engagement with European partners.
