Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Brussels on Thursday for a gathering of NATO overseas ministers amid excessive nervousness over the Trump administration’s strategy to Europe, together with the conflict in Ukraine, relations with Russia and President Trump’s rising commerce conflict with the continent.
Mr. Rubio’s go to to the alliance’s headquarters comes as relations between america and Europe have abruptly shifted from the shut cooperation of the Biden period to distrust and acrimony beneath Mr. Trump.
On the similar time, NATO officers could welcome an opportunity to seek advice from Mr. Rubio, whom many contemplate essentially the most pro-alliance member of Mr. Trump’s nationwide safety staff.
As a senator in 2023, representing Florida, Mr. Rubio cosponsored laws requiring any president to hunt the Senate’s recommendation and consent earlier than withdrawing from the group. Former aides say Mr. Trump has privately mused about taking that step, which might shatter the 32-nation navy alliance fashioned to counter Russia.
Overseas officers who’ve handled Mr. Rubio since he grew to become Mr. Trump’s prime diplomat have described him as downplaying a few of Mr. Trump’s wilder concepts and translating them into extra real looking coverage approaches, though in addition they query whether or not he actually speaks for a president with whom he doesn’t have an in depth private relationship.
And there’s solely a lot Mr. Rubio can do to sugarcoat Mr. Trump’s agenda, which is pushed by a view that Europe economically exploits america, is culturally out of sync with the values of Mr. Trump’s political motion and should do enterprise with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Rubio additionally arrives only a day after Mr. Trump introduced 20 % tariffs on imports from the European Union. On the White Home on Wednesday, Mr. Trump mentioned of the E.U.: “They rip us off. It’s so unhappy to see. It’s so pathetic.”
In conferences with NATO ministers, Mr. Rubio is predicted to press Mr. Trump’s name for a swift finish to the conflict in Ukraine, an strategy that alarms many European leaders who overwhelmingly assist Kyiv and worry that Mr. Trump will wind up appeasing Mr. Putin.
Mr. Rubio’s fellow ministers will do their finest to form the Trump administration’s efforts to dealer a deal between Kyiv and Moscow, which have stalled over broad gaps between the fighters, and to induce america to not abandon Ukraine.
Mr. Rubio can also be more likely to reiterate Mr. Trump’s demand that NATO nations enhance their navy spending to five % of their gross home product, whilst lots of them battle to fulfill spending objectives of two % that the alliance set years in the past. Mr. Trump and different prime American officers imagine that the alliance depends too closely on america for defense.
That was made painfully clear to European officers by a dialogue amongst prime Trump administration officers final month on the Sign app that unwittingly included a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic journal. Through the textual content chain, a couple of U.S. plan to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen, Vice President JD Vance complained that America would “once more” be “bailing out” Europe by taking unilateral motion to guard worldwide transport lanes that the Houthis have attacked.
“I totally share your loathing of European freeloading,” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth responded. “It’s PATHETIC.”
Mr. Trump himself has warned that he could not come to the protection of NATO nations that he feels will not be spending sufficient on their militaries, regardless of the alliance’s dedication to mutual self-defense. “In the event that they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” the president informed reporters final month.
An extra level of pressure is Mr. Trump’s dedication to accumulate the island of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO member. Mr. Trump has shocked officers from Denmark and different NATO nations by declining to rule out taking Greenland by drive, though Mr. Vance mentioned on a current go to to the island that navy motion was not into account.
Denmark’s overseas minister will attend the gathering in Brussels, though it’s unclear whether or not he and Mr. Rubio will talk about Greenland. Danish officers say they can not negotiate Greenland’s destiny on their very own as a result of the island has the best of self-determination.
Mr. Rubio will likely be joined in Brussels by the brand new U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew G. Whitaker, whom the Senate narrowly confirmed on Tuesday.
NATO officers are uncertain what to make of Mr. Whitaker, who briefly served as performing lawyer basic throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period however has no overseas coverage expertise. Throughout his affirmation listening to, Mr. Whitaker assured senators that america’ dedication to NATO was “ironclad.”