USA and Europe are part of the same civilization; we must build new Western Century together - Secretary of State Rubio in Munich
The criticism and advice that the United States and President Donald Trump are directing toward Europe may seem too blunt and insistent, but they are driven by a desire to preserve the shared future of Western civilization, of which both Europe and the United States are a part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
He said speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that the fate of Europe will never be a matter of indifference to them, adding that they are defending a great civilization that must be in charge of its own destiny. He also said that it is advisable to think about how to advance their interests together, in other words to build a new Western Century.
Rubio noted that the United States will always be a child of Europe; they are connected not only militarily, but also economically and culturally.
At the same time, the Secretary of State called for an honest approach to our shared heritage and an acknowledgement of the mistakes made in relation to free and unrestricted trade, which was abused by other countries, deindustrialization, ineffective "green" policies, and the outsourcing of nationally important functions, which resulted in Western countries becoming dependent on others and vulnerable to crises. The Secretary of State identified mass migration as one such crisis, threatening the unity of Western societies, the continuity of their cultures, and the future of their peoples.
He called for joint reindustrialization of the economy, the construction of Western supply chains for critical materials, a joint fight for market share in the Global South, and the development of commercial spaceflight and artificial intelligence.
Rubio also stated that the so-called world order cannot be placed above national interests. He argued that global institutions do not need to be dismantled, but they must be reformed and restored.
As an example, he cited the UN, which has failed to resolve the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran, while the United States has achieved success on these issues, although it has still not ended Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We increasingly outsourced our sovereignty to international institutions while many nations invested in massive welfare states at the cost of maintaining the ability to defend themselves. This, even as other countries have invested in the most rapid military buildup in all of human history and have not hesitated to use hard power to pursue their own interests,” the State Secretary believes.
According to him, Washington wants Europe to be strong because this strengthens the United States.
“In a perfect world, all of these problems and more would be solved by diplomats and strongly worded resolutions. But we do not live in a perfect world, and we cannot continue to allow those who blatantly and openly threaten our citizens and endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate,” Rubio stressed.
He added that this is the path that President Trump and the United States have embarked on, and it is the path that Europe is being asked to join.
“We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,” the Secretary of State summed up.
