Name: Rubio on US-Europe Alliance, China, Cuba and Iran Negotiations
Uploaded: 2026-02-16T21:32:33.000Z
Duration: 13 min 15 s
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Secretary of State, thank you for talking to Bloomberg.

Adverbs of degree

You've just made this rather remarkable speech where you talked about the destiny of Europe and America always being intertwined.

Adverbs of manner

You talked about an alliance which has stretched all the way culturally from Michelangelo to the Rolling Stones, a first, I suspect, for a Secretary of State, but

a culture that has bled and died together.

But the very common theme of your speech was the need to share the burden, the need for Europe and America to do things together, which was slightly different from the vice President last year.

Were you kind of offering a carrot where perhaps he was offering a stick?

I think what the vice President said last year very clearly was that Europe had made a series of decisions internally that were threatening to the alliance and ultimately to themselves.

Not because we hate Europe or we don't like Europeans, but

And ultimately, it's the fact that we are both heirs to the same civilization.

it's one we should be proud of, one that's contributed extraordinarily to the world.

And it's one, frankly, upon which America is built, from our language to our system of government to our laws, to the food we eat, to the name of our cities and towns, all of it deeply linked to this Western civilization and culture that we should be proud of and it's worth defending.

The point is that people, you know, people don't fight and die for abstract ideas.

They are willing to fight and defend who they are and what matters and is important to them.

And that was the foundation he laid last year in his speech.

And we add on into this year to explain to people that when we come off as urgent or even critical about decisions that Europe has failed to make or made, it is because we care.

It is because we understand that ultimately our own fate will be intertwined with what happens with Europe.

We want Europe to prosper because we're interconnected in so many different ways and because our alliance is so critical.

But it has to be an alliance of allies that are capable and willing to fight for who they are and what's important.

You seem to see a parallel between the Cold War and which.

I think I would argue that America beat the Soviet Union because it had a common idea and it had allies on its side.

You're now in a struggle with China, as people say.

You've often been a hawk on that subject, you're in a struggle with China.

Do you think you absolutely need Europe to be able to.

The first, the mentions of the Cold War to remind people of everything we've achieved together in the past, in times when there was doubt.

there were those who believed in the 60s and 70s even, that at a minimum, we had reached a stalemate and were that perhaps Soviet expansion was inevitable and that we needed to come to accept it.

There were voices that actually argued this.

And so it's reminding people of what we've done together in the past, but

it's also a reminder that at the end of that era, when we won the Cold War, there was this euphoria that led us to make some terrible decisions that have now left us vulnerable and deindustrialized the West.

It left us increasingly dependent on others, including China, for our critical supplies.

And that needs to be reversed in order to safeguard us.

And so I do think, yes, it would be ideal to have a West supply chain that is free from extortion from anyone.

We should never be in a situation where our alliance and our respective countries are vulnerable to extortion or blackmail because someone controls 99% of something that's critical to national life.

So I think we do have a vested interest in that regard.

it has parallels not in that China is the new Soviet Union, but

that in our future, collectively will be stronger if we work on these things together.

Do you worry from that perspective, the fact that, especially in the recent period, various sort of allies.

Mark Carney has just been to Beijing, Starmer has just been to Beijing.

Do you worry that they're beginning to drift off too much in that direction?

No, I think nation states need to interact with one another.

I mean, remember, I. I serve under a president that's willing to meet with anybody.

I mean, to be frank, I'm pretty confident in saying that if the Ayatollah said tomorrow he wanted to meet with President Trump, the president would meet him, not because he agrees with the Ayatollah, but

because he thinks that's the way you solve problems in the world, and

he doesn't view meeting someone as a concession.

Likewise, the president intends to travel to Beijing and has already met once with President Xi.

And in this very forum yesterday, I met with my counterpart, the foreign Minister of China.

So we expect Nation states to interact with one another.

In the end, we expect nation states to act in their national interest.

I don't think that is excludh in no way runs counter to our desire to work together on things that we share in common or threats we face in common.

But I don't think visiting Beijing or meeting with the Chinese is.

On the contrary, I think it would be irresponsible for great powers not to have relationships and talk through things and to the extent possible, avoid unnecessary conflict.

But there will be areas we'll never agree on, and

those are the areas that I hope we can work together on.

So you think the rupture that many people have spoken about is illusory?

I mean, even as I speak to you now, there are US Troops deployed here on this continent on behalf of NATO.

There are still all kinds of cooperation that go on at every level, from intelligence to commercial and economic.

I think there is a readjustment that's happening because I think we have to understand that we want to reinvigorate.

This alliance has to look different because the world looks different.

This alliance has to be about different things than it's been in the past, because the challenges of the 21st century are different than the challenges of the 20th.

The world has changed, and the alliance has to change.

But the fundamental thing that has to change is we have to remind ourselves of why it is we have an alliance in the first place.

This is not just some commercial arrangement.

It is what holds us together in the first place as an alliance is our shared civilizational values.

The fact that we are all heirs to a common civilization and one we should be very proud of.

And only after we recognize that and make that the core of why it is we're all allies in the first place, can we then build out all the mechanics of that alliance, Then everything else we do together makes more sense.

The place where that's being most obviously tested at the moment is Ukraine.

You see all these numbers from the front where the Ukrainians do seem to be doing better in terms of what's happening to the Russians.

Do you think Ukraine or do you think Russia is still winning that war, or where do you place it militarily?

I think that's a difficult war to say anyone is winning.

The Russians are losing 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers a week.

Ukraine has suffered extraordinary damage, including, you know, overnight and again, to its energy infrastructure.

And it will take billions of dollars and years and years to rebuild that country.

So I don't think anyone can claim to be winning it.

I think that both sides are suffering tremendous damage, and

He believes the war would have never happened had he been president at the time.

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Rubio on US-Europe Alliance, China, Cuba and Iran Negotiations

vulnerable

ultimately

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