Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened the second day of the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday with an address that European leaders hoped would signal a more amicable tone. The previous day, European leaders had already begun charting new visions for the transatlantic alliance, anticipating less reliance on America for defense and commerce, and acknowledging a divergence in core values with the United States under the Trump administration.
Despite Mr. Trump’s differing approaches, Mr. Rubio has generally been seen by European leaders as a constructive partner on security matters. There was a collective sense of relief in the room following his speech, a stark contrast to the stern criticism Vice President JD Vance delivered at last year’s gathering, where he rebuked Europeans for marginalizing far-right parties. However, Mr. Rubio still had to address a range of European concerns, many of which surfaced during the first day of the conference, serving as both a delayed rebuttal to Mr. Vance and a preemptive response to Mr. Rubio himself.
Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, initiated the conference by advocating for a revamped intercontinental friendship, implying that Washington had somewhat strayed from its path. He stated that under Mr. Trump’s second term, the United States’ claim to global leadership had been “challenged, and possibly squandered.” Merz highlighted how Trump’s policies, such as opposition to hate speech, disengagement from climate change efforts, and challenges to free trade, diverged from the values Germans and other Europeans once believed they shared with Americans. “The culture war of the MAGA movement is not ours,” he asserted.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an evening speech, lamented that Europe had been unfairly “vilified” as a region plagued by uncontrolled immigration and restrictions on free speech – a clear, though veiled, reference to Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance. Macron urged, “Everyone should take their cue from us, instead of criticizing us or trying to divide us.”
Despite these frictions, leaders like Macron and Merz, along with Kaja Kallas, the top European Union diplomat, voiced optimism for the enduring partnership and mutual dependence between the U.S. and Europe. Kallas emphasized on a panel that while Russia might lack strong allies in conflict, the United States relies on Europe. “You also need us, to be this superpower,” she concluded.
Rubio’s speech itself covered several key themes. He praised the historical contributions of European ancestry to American colonialists, noting the Scotch-Irish settlers and the iconic ‘cowboy archetype’ as examples of historic exploration and settlement, though notably omitting mention of indigenous peoples. He even made a light-hearted nod to German immigrants for “dramatically improved the quality of our beer.”
He expressed a belief that “Europe must survive,” asserting that the shared history of two world wars has inextricably linked the destinies of the United States and Europe. The Secretary of State outlined a Trump administration vision for a revitalized alliance, urging European nations to join the U.S. in a new future. He adopted a more diplomatic tone than his predecessor, stating, “We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary can ever be tempted to test our collective strength.”
However, Rubio also struck a more conservative note, criticizing the idea of a united, globalized citizenship as a “dangerous delusion” leading to a world “without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.” He argued this idea fostered misconceptions about adversarial nations, enabling them to dominate global commerce and energy resources, and contributed to “an unprecedented wave of mass migration.” He explicitly called “mass migration” an “urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization itself,” echoing earlier criticisms within the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy regarding “civilizational erasure.” He emphasized the need for Western nations to reindustrialize, focusing on areas like commercial space travel, artificial intelligence, and critical mineral supply chains, while insisting that limiting immigration is not xenophobia. He concluded that the world’s past embrace of a liberal, borderless democracy was a “foolish idea that ignored both human nature and… 5,000 years of recorded human history, and it has cost us dearly.” According to Rubio, President Trump is poised to lead the “renewal and restoration” of the United States.
On the sidelines of the conference, Rubio engaged in a series of diplomatic meetings. He spoke with the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland about President Trump’s intentions regarding Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring. He also discussed the Ukraine war with Chancellor Merz, who highlighted it as the most pressing issue. Notably, Rubio skipped a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amidst ongoing, slow-moving negotiations between Ukraine and Russia set to resume in Geneva. On Friday evening, he also met with Asaad al-Shaibani, Syria’s foreign minister, affirming U.S. support for a stable Syria that protects the rights of all its ethnic and religious minority groups.
Meanwhile, American and European officials reiterated U.S. commitment to its nuclear shield for NATO allies. However, Germany, through Merz, revealed it had begun discussions with France, a nuclear power, about establishing an independent European nuclear deterrent as a contingency plan.
The conference also saw the attendance of several U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Mark Kelly, and Senator Lindsey Graham, despite Speaker Mike Johnson having canceled the official House delegation’s travel plans due to federal agency shutdowns. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also attended independently and addressed the main stage on Friday.