United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Washington wants to revitalise its friendship with Europe in a speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, offering some reassurance to European countries after more than a year of turmoil in transatlantic relations, reports Al Jazeera.
But the speech, which drew a standing ovation on Saturday, was short on concrete commitments, made no mention of Russia, and criticised Europe’s values, including the continent’s approach to migration and climate change.
“In a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish, because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” Rubio said. “For the United States and Europe, we belong together.”
While praising Europe’s cultural achievements – from Michelangelo to William Shakespeare – Rubio was firm about the US President Donald Trump’s administration’s intent to reshape the transatlantic alliance and push its priorities.
He argued that the “euphoria” of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a “dangerous delusion that we had entered ‘the end of history’,” where every nation would be a liberal democracy and “live in a world without borders, where everyone became a citizen of the world”.
This was a “foolish idea” that resulted in Western nations outsourcing their sovereignty to international institutions and opening “doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people”, he said.
To appease a “climate cult”, he added, “we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people”.
“We made these mistakes together, and now, together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild.”
Rubio acknowledged that “we have bled and died side-by-side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar”, and said he was in Munich to “make it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity… and that once again, we want to do it together, with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends”.
Bd-pratidin English/TR
