Rubio at Munich: A Friend to Europe, But Change is Essential

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference emphasizing shared transatlantic ties, stating that Europe and America ‘belong together.’ However, his remarks also echoed the Trump administration’s stance on Western decline and the necessity for change across the continent.

“We want Europe to be strong,” Mr. Rubio affirmed on Saturday, reminding the audience that the destinies of the US and Europe remain intertwined, a lesson from the two World Wars of the 20th century.

His address notably differed in tone from Vice President JD Vance’s appearance at last year’s conference, where Vance had sharply criticized Europeans for their approach to far-right parties and free speech. While Vance’s speech was met with silence, Rubio’s received applause and even a brief standing ovation.

Despite the softer delivery, Rubio reiterated warnings, consistent with the Trump administration’s views, about mass migration posing a threat to European civilization and the urgent need to reform post-World War II institutions such as the United Nations.

“We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline,” he declared.

European leaders expressed a sense of relief regarding Rubio’s tone. Yet, they acknowledged that his speech did little to alter their conviction that Europe must rebalance its relationship with the United States, particularly by enhancing its military independence.

Following Rubio’s address, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer cautioned against “the warm bath of complacency,” asserting that “As Europe, we must stand on our own two feet.” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Union’s executive arm, while “reassured” by Rubio’s words, firmly stated, “Europe must become more independent — there is no other choice.”

Here’s the latest.

Europe and America “belong together,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, in a speech that underlined the deep ties between the United States and the continent but also echoed the Trump administration’s talking points about the threat of Western decline.

“We want Europe to be strong,” Mr. Rubio said, adding that the two world wars of the 20th century were a reminder that “our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours.”

Mr. Rubio’s speech had a different tone than the one given by Vice President JD Vance at the Munich conference last year, when Mr. Vance scolded Europeans for sidelining far-right parties and accused them of limiting free speech. While Mr. Vance’s speech was met with stony silence, Mr. Rubio’s address prompted bouts of applause and laughter, and drew a brief standing ovation.

But as Mr. Vance did last year, Mr. Rubio issued warnings about the threat the Trump administration says mass migration poses to European civilization and the need to reform post-World War II institutions like the United Nations.

“We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West‘s managed decline,” he said.

European leaders expressed relief at Mr. Rubio’s speech, but they also said it changed little about what they see as Europe’s need to rebalance its relationship with the United States, becoming more independent militarily.

After the address, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said it would be a “mistake” to “get in the warm bath of complacency.” In his own speech, he said: “As Europe, we must stand on our own two feet.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, said she was “reassured” by Mr. Rubio’s speech but insisted in her own address that “Europe must become more independent — there is no other choice.”

Here’s what else to know:

• Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the conference his country would hold elections after a cease-fire — not before, despite American calls for elections. Mr. Zelensky has been president since 2019, and elections have not been held since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. He also repeated that Ukraine needed strong security guarantees before agreeing to any end to the war. “We hope President Trump hears us,” he said.
• Greenland: The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland addressed the conference on Saturday evening, a day after meeting with Mr. Rubio. They took a firm stance against Mr. Trump’s attempts to acquire the massive Arctic island, which is an autonomous part of Denmark. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s premier, added, “we are taking steps in the right direction,” including dialogue and strengthening counterweights to Chinese and Russian influence through the Arctic Sentry initiative.
• Nuclear weapons: American and European officials stressed this week that the United States was still committed to its decades-long posture of providing a nuclear shield for its NATO allies in Europe. But Europe is making a backup plan. Mr. Merz said Friday that Germany had begun talks with France, a nuclear power, on establishing a nuclear deterrent for Europe that would not depend on America.
• Aleksei A. Navalny: Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that the Russian opposition leader, who died in prison in 2024, was most likely poisoned by a toxin, contradicting Russia’s claims that he died of natural causes. Yulia Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny’s wife, told reporters in Munich that the joint statement of the five countries validated the assertion that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was responsible for the death.

Thousands rally for regime change in Iran, in cities around the world.

Protesters demanding regime change in Iran converged on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, a day after President Trump said a change in government would be the best outcome for a country reeling from deadly unrest.

Earlier this month, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the country’s deposed shah and an opposition figure in exile, had encouraged protesters to take to the streets on Feb. 14 to put pressure on the Iranian government. Speaking at the Munich conference on Friday, Mr. Pahlavi renewed an appeal for American intervention in Iran.

Large demonstrations also took place in other cities across the globe, including Melbourne, Athens, Tokyo and London.

Nuclear talks between the United States and Iran were expected to resume on Tuesday in Geneva, according to two American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Mr. Trump has ordered warships to the Persian Gulf, signaling readiness for a potential strike should the negotiations collapse.

Around 200,000 people attended the protest in Munich, according to Tamara Djukaric, a spokeswoman for the city’s police, where Mr. Pahlavi, along with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, addressed the crowds.

Many demonstrators waved a version of the Iranian flag that bears a lion and sun motif, which was in use before the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah. Some carried images of Mr. Pahlavi and chanted phrases like “Regime change in Iran!” while others wore red baseball caps emblazoned with the phrase “Make Iran Great Again,” a reference to the hats worn by supporters of Mr. Trump

During a visit to troops in Fort Bragg, N. C., on Friday, President Trump said that replacing Iran’s current leadership would be “the best thing that could happen,” adding, “For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking.”

The demonstrations across the globe came after weeks of protests in Iran itself, which began late December over economic issues and broadened into a nationwide movement challenging the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers. Security forces crushed those demonstrations with deadly force, killing thousands.

In London, a number of protesters took to the streets carrying photographs of family members or friends who they said were killed or detained during the recent unrest. Some staged mock killings, while others chanted slogans denouncing the government, including “Death to Khamenei,” a reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

“I am here to ask for human rights and equality and to tell the world that the value of the people who have been lost in Iran are not less than anyone else,” said one of the London protesters, Kimia, 28, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of retaliation. “I am here to be their voice because they have been silenced.”

Demonstrators also held posters of Mr. Trump or images of his posts on social media, in which he urged Iranians to continue protesting and suggested help was on the way.

Mania Shojaei, 54, said she joined the protest in London to show solidarity with the people in Iran, and knew several people who were injured in the protests.

“I am upset that the U.S. has done nothing yet,” she said. “Trump said he was ‘locked and loaded.’ We are waiting for him to do something.”

On Saturday, as protests swelled in cities across the globe, Mr. Pahlavi told reporters in Munich that negotiations would not work and that Iran’s government was “simply buying time.” He called on governments to sever the Iranian government’s financial lifelines, expel its diplomats and close its embassies. And he asked Mr. Trump to step in.

“The Iranian people heard you say help is on the way, and they have faith in you,” he said during a news conference. “Help them.”

Mr. Pahlavi, the heir of the monarchs who ruled Iran before their ouster nearly five decades ago, has recently tried to position himself as a potential transitional leader.

“It is time to end the Islamic Republic,” he said on Saturday, adding that more was needed beyond “diplomatic scolding.”

Though Mr. Pahlavi has support among some of the Iranian government’s opponents, analysts caution that it is hard to gauge how many Iranians genuinely hope he might one day return as a national leader, given his family’s history.

During the Pahlavi era of Iran, when the shah maintained close ties with the United States, Iranian security forces routinely arrested and tortured dissenters — a record that Mr. Pahlavi has largely avoided addressing directly.

Critics argue that he overstates his backing inside Iran, and some critics say they have faced harassment and threats from his supporters.

In the recent protests inside Iran, some demonstrators appeared to be rallying around Mr. Pahlavi, even shouting “Long live the shah,” using the Farsi word for “king.” Others, however, have rejected all forms of authoritarian rule, chanting instead, “Death to the oppressor, be it king or supreme leader.”

Zelensky rules out holding elections until there is a cease-fire with Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday ruled out holding elections until a cease-fire is reached in the war with Russia, despite pressure from the United States.

Mr. Zelensky, who was speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, has long maintained that elections could not be held during the war. The Financial Times, citing Western and Ukrainian officials, reported on Wednesday that he would announce on Feb. 24 plans to hold both a presidential election and a referendum on a peace deal by May, although no deal has been reached. Mr. Zelensky said the first time he heard about that plan was in the Financial Times.

Mr. Zelensky was elected in 2019, and his five-year term officially ended in May 2024. Elections were suspended under the martial law that was declared after Russia’s full-scale invasion almost four years ago.

The Ukrainian leader has come under increasing pressure from both Russia and President Trump to hold elections. Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Zelensky as a “dictator without elections” in a social media post a year ago.

“Give us two months of cease-fire, and we will go to elections,” Mr. Zelensky said on Saturday, adding that without a cease-fire, it would be difficult to ensure that soldiers, for instance, could vote. “That’s it. Give us cease-fire.”

In addition, Mr. Zelensky pushed back on a U.S. proposal that Ukraine give up parts of its eastern territory that aren’t currently controlled by Russia, to create a demilitarized free economic zone that would serve as a buffer between the two countries. The United States has been pushing that idea as part of trilateral peace negotiations that started in January and are set to resume on Tuesday in Geneva.

Russia controls about 80 percent of the eastern Donetsk region, and it is demanding that Ukraine surrender the whole region to achieve peace. About 190,000 Ukrainians still live in the area of Donetsk controlled by Ukraine.

Europe’s Reaction to Rubio: Relief, Up to a Point

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for a stronger Europe in a sweeping speech at the Munich Security Conference, emphasizing America’s European heritage even as he slammed “mass migration” and echoed U.S. officials’ past warnings of “civilizational erasure.”

His remarks were received initially with relief by European leaders. They had watched the speech nervously, afraid that Mr. Rubio might reprise Vice President JD Vance’s scorching takedown of the continent’s governance at last year’s conference.

“I was very much reassured by the speech of the secretary of state,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

But what assured Europeans was style more than content, many said as the day progressed.

While Mr. Rubio’s tone was more flattering and less caustic than Mr. Vance’s was last year, the ideas contained within his remarks were enough to sustain unease, and to underscore that the trans-Atlantic relationship was still in the midst of fundamental change, a year into President Trump’s second term.

“Of course it is a different tone — it is less aggressive,” Terry Reintke, a German member of the European Parliament, said. “But it is not a speech which I take as a call for Europeans to just calm down and not be vigilant anymore. It just didn’t further deteriorate the situation.”

Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign affairs minister, said Mr. Rubio had painted over cracks that Mr. Vance created last year. But while he was more polite, Mr. Landsbergis said, the message was not fundamentally different.

“It is now clear that this is all about interests, not common values,” Mr. Landsbergis wrote in a statement. “And do we actually have common interests?”

As Mr. Rubio spoke, audience members huddled outside the conference hall seemed to visibly relax, chatting calmly after a period of apprehensive silence.

As the day wore on, though, reactions increasingly focused on just what Mr. Rubio had said. He emphasized shared ancestry and Christianity, when many Europeans emphasize multiculturalism. He criticized countries that “outsourced sovereignty” to international institutions, even as he spoke at the heart the 27-nation European Union. He blasted a “climate cult” and migration policies.

“Charm offensive in tone, but a clear rejection of international rules,” Bernd Lange, another member of European Parliament, wrote on social media.

European leaders on Saturday said they needed to be less dependent on the United States, to work more closely together militarily, and to firmly protect their own belief systems.

“In today’s fractured world, Europe must become more independent — there is no other choice,” Ms. von der Leyen said during a panel discussion in Munich shortly after Mr. Rubio’s speech. She later said the European Union would deepen ties with its “closest partners, like the U.K., Norway, Iceland or Canada.”

That message of teaming up was echoed by Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, who spoke alongside her on the panel.

He said that “as Europe, we must stand on our own two feet,” emphasizing that Britain must build stronger links to the European Union, which its people voted to leave in 2016.

Mr. Starmer added that Britain would show that “people who look different to each other can live peacefully together — that this isn’t against the tenor of our times,” he said. “Rather, it’s what makes us strong.”

The British leader also emphasized that Europe should not take too much comfort from Mr. Rubio’s remarks.

“We shouldn’t get in the warm bath of complacency,” he said. “That would be a mistake, and it would be a particular mistake for Europe.”

Rubio stresses shared history and defense goals to Europeans but also warns of ‘civilizational erasure.’

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Saturday of the United States being descended from Europe, he drew applause from the mainly European audience here at the Munich Security Conference.

“For us Americans, home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” he said. He stressed that countries on both sides of the Atlantic were “heirs to the same great and noble civilization,” and mentioned the cultural gifts that Europe had bestowed on the world — from ancient universities to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. That line got laughs.

But his speech also conveyed the message that any ruptures between the United States and Europe were because of the Trump administration’s view that Europe had strayed too far from that shared culture and vision.

He voiced far-right ideas in a few parts of his speech, in particular in a line in which he talked about the “civilizational erasure” that threatens the United States and Europe. He spoke several times of the dangers of “mass migration” and the need for nations to place much stricter limits on who enters their borders and settles in their lands.

This was a central theme in the speech that Vice President JD Vance delivered in Munich last year, which alarmed European officials and drew scorn.

Still, the diplomatic tone that Mr. Rubio struck sent a ripple of relief through the main conference hall. Mr. Rubio came to Munich aiming to reassure European nations that the Trump administration did not intend to widen schisms that have emerged in relations in the past year. He told reporters in Washington on Thursday that he thought his speech would be “well received.”

Mr. Rubio also spoke in vague terms of a shared future. He told the Europeans that “our destiny together awaits.” He said he wanted to make it clear that “America is charting a path of a new century of prosperity, and that once again we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.”

Mr. Rubio said the U.S.-Europe alliance cannot allow itself to be crippled by the “malaise of hopelessness and complacency” and paralyzed by fears of climate change and new technology.

And he emphasized the need for greater defense spending by European nations, an idea that over the last year has become one that European leaders are voicing as well.

“We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary can ever be tempted to test our collective strength,” Mr. Rubio said.

That same demand is being made here at the conference by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy. Though it is one that first alarmed European officials when the Trump administration began emphasizing it early last year, the notion is now being embraced across this continent. That is also partly because of Russia’s persistence in carrying out its war in Ukraine.

European officials say their countries need to be self-sufficient because Washington’s foreign policy sometimes directly threatens European interests, most notably in President Trump’s recent insistence that the U.S. government play a significant role in the control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Mr. Rubio did address some specific shared security issues, including efforts to push Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

“We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war,” he said when asked about the conflict in a brief onstage chat after his speech. “We’re going to continue to test it.”

He said the United States plans to continue to pressure Russia with economic sanctions and to sell weapons to Europe that will ultimately be used by Ukraine in its defensive efforts.

European officials, however, are wary of Mr. Trump’s history of voicing admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Mr. Rubio also said the United States and European nations should try to carry on positive conversations with China, given China’s status as a superpower, without compromising their national interests. Mr. Trump halted his trade war with China because of the leverage wielded by the Chinese government on processed critical minerals and rare earths.

“It would be in geopolitical malpractice to not be in conversations with China,” Mr. Rubio said. The two nations can find areas of cooperation, he said — a message that he eschewed in his previous job as a U.S. senator, when he advocated hard-line policies on China. But Mr. Trump often speaks of seeking a partnership with China, and he and Xi Jinping, the leader of China, are planning for a summit in Beijing in April.

After Mr. Rubio’s speech, Wolfgang Ischinger, the chairman of the security conference, asked the American diplomat onstage whether he had heard the room’s collective “sigh of relief.”