When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the stage at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, he gave assurances in his address and praised the “unbreakable relationship” between the US and Europe that dates back to the arrival of European settlers on the American continent.
“We will always be the children of Europe,” he said.
The crowd of European leaders, ministers and senior officials rose to their feet to applaud, but it was less out of admiration and more out of pure relief.
The first 13 months of Donald Trump’s second term have produced the biggest crisis in transatlantic relations for decades, as his aggressive foreign policy and transactional relations with allies upset long-standing US partners in Europe and disrupt their eight-decade-long security pact.
While Rubio’s tone was gentler than the defiant speech delivered by US Vice President JD Vance at the same forum last year – the first in a year-long series of speeches delivered by Trump’s administration to the EU and NATO – the substance of the US message was little changed.
Rubio echoed the administration’s talking points, including criticism of European energy policies for “appeasing a climate cult” that “impoverishes our people”, and claimed that mass migration raised the possibility of “the extinction of civilization”.
“Rubio is the best we can expect from a (US) administration,” said a senior European minister in the room. “But he was still very clear that if the transatlantic relationship is not broken, it is very different from what we are used to.”
European officials said that in many ways Vance’s 2025 speech was easier to handle because it was so aggressive that it ensured unity in the response. Rubio’s specifics make it difficult to determine the threat, he said.
“That’s the thing: If you break stuff, it’s not so easy to put it back together,” said a European minister in the audience. “It’s good that (Rubio) reached out instead of looking into our eyes… but nothing has changed.”
Speaking directly after Rubio, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made clear that despite the change in rhetoric, US-European relations remain fundamentally strained. Europe has faced “shock therapy”, he said. “Some lines have been crossed that can no longer be crossed… The European way of life, our democratic foundations and the trust of our citizens are being challenged in new ways.”
Officials said Rubio’s softer tone has allowed more optimistic voices in Europe to convey the message that business as usual is still possible.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte defended Rubio’s decision not to attend the meeting with European leaders, which was expected to discuss Ukraine, citing schedule conflicts. He said Rubio had “something else, important work to do”.
“(The US) has to take care of the whole world, not just Europe. They can’t be everywhere. I understand that completely,” Rutte said.
The annual Munich event has become a health check on the state of transatlantic relations. That happened this year when Trump threatened and then backed down on possible military action to seize Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
It was the most extreme example in a series of relationship-straining events and follows Trump’s tariffs on European countries last year and his support for Eurosceptic political candidates in the recent EU elections.
A senior EU diplomat said Rubio’s real message to the continent was his visit on Sunday to Slovakia, followed by Hungary – two of the most problematic governments for Brussels.
“Rubio sent the right message of reassurance and got a standing ovation, but behind closed doors Europeans say there is no going back now because the Greenland fiasco is so bone-chilling,” said Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think-tank. “The good news is that Europe’s tone this year is focused and pragmatic rather than reactive and emotional: this is a positive change.”
The unbridgeable gaps between the US and Europe are most prominent over Ukraine and the outlook for US-led peace talks.
While Trump is demanding Ukraine make concessions to advance negotiations, European capitals say they should instead put pressure on Russia, either by increasing military support to Kiev or by imposing more sanctions on Moscow.
“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech at the conference. “Often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not in the context of Russia.”
People briefed on the discussions told the FT that European leaders in Munich particularly pressed Rutte to stand firm with the US on peace talks and not support Trump’s approach.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the conference, “Stopping (the war) is in Russia’s hands. But it is also in our hands. And it is the US, Europe and Ukraine that can bring it together to stop (Russia).”
The level of unease is such that Germany, a country that has always rejected offers from Paris to join the French nuclear umbrella and relies on the US nuclear shield, is considering changing its stance. Merz announced Friday that he has “started conversations” with French President Emmanuel Macron about the continent’s nuclear deterrence.
There are also concerns in European capitals that the Trump administration fundamentally dislikes the EU as an institution and will treat states as if they were isolated — an approach that many in Europe believe undermines decades of European integration designed to ensure peace and prosperity.
German conservative lawmaker Roderich Kiesewetter said, “The impression of Rubio’s speech was like a damage control exercise with regard to Trump’s statements. But he clearly does not appreciate the EU. His view of Europe is very nationalistic.”
Yet after a year of turmoil from Washington, much of the European security and defense community was willing to regard the glass as half full rather than half empty.
A German government insider said: “Essentially Rubio repeated Vance’s analysis on the decline of Western civilization and mass migration. But on the practical side, what matters to us, he managed to convince us that he was pro-NATO – we can work on that basis.”
