By Sarah Marsh, Humeyra Pamuk and Andrew Gray
BERLIN/MUNICH, Feb 13 (Reuters) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said transatlantic ties face a “defining moment” in a rapidly changing world but struck a warmer tone ahead of the Munich Security Conference on Friday after a year of unprecedented turmoil.
At the same meeting of top security officials last year, Vice President JD Vance had attacked European allies, triggering a series of confrontations, with the United States seemingly moving to dismantle much of the international order it helped build.
In response, Washington’s partners have been pushing to chart a more independent path while preserving the basis of the alliance, as they face major threats from Russia’s war in Ukraine to major disruptions in global trade.
“I think he is in a defining moment… the world is changing very quickly in front of us,” Rubio said before leaving for Munich.
“The Old World is over, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it will require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role will be,” he said.
“(The United States is) very tied to Europe, and our futures have always been tied and will continue to be,” said Rubio, who is a potential rival to Vance for the 2028 US presidential race. “So we’re still just talking about what that future looks like.”
‘WRECKING-BALL POLITICS’ THREATEN THE ALLIANCE
This year’s meeting comes against a backdrop of multiple conflicts, including wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
Transatlantic ties have long been central to the Munich Security Conference, which began as a Cold War forum for Western defense debate. But the unquestioned assumption of cooperation that underpins it has been changed.
Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German diplomat who heads the forum, spoke this week of a “politics of breakdown” in which “major destruction – rather than thorough reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day”.
Underscoring the damage, a YouGov poll on Friday of the six largest European countries showed favorability for the United States in Europe hitting its lowest since tracking began in 2016.
The latest figures are generally comparable to – and in some cases higher than – the perceived threat from China, Iran or North Korea, although behind Russia, YouGov said.
US President Donald Trump has overthrown the leader of Venezuela, threatened other Latin American countries with similar military action, imposed tariffs on friends and enemies alike and talked openly about the annexation of Greenland by fellow NATO member Denmark – a move that could effectively end the alliance.
“No one in Europe or the United States wins from any kind of conflict between old allies,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said she would meet Rubio in Munich.
“So we have to do what we can to keep the Americans close to us, but this is a new world disorder that we live in. And so the most important thing for us Europeans is to arm us as soon as possible.”
The Trump administration’s harsh new tone, including a dire warning that Europe is facing “civilizational decay”, has shaken its allies, who have vowed to increase spending on their own militaries after decades of neglect.
Europe’s reliance on US military support will take years to shed, however, leaving it vulnerable as the standoff with Russia over the Ukraine war persists.
Germany’s foreign minister said on Friday that recent comments by US officials have caused irritation in NATO.
“This alliance is also under pressure. There is alienation, there is irritation about some of the things we hear from Washington. We need to talk about this here together,” said Johann Wadephul to the German broadcaster ARD.
In another striking sign of the changing rhetoric, the head of Germany’s industry association BDI, Peter Leibinger, said in Munich that Europeans had to prepare their defense sector “with, without and possibly against Washington”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will open the conference with a speech on Friday afternoon, while around 70 heads of state and government and more than 140 ministers are expected under tight security in Munich.
Prominent attendees include Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned this week: “We have the Chinese tsunami on the trade front, and we have minute-by-minute instability on the American side.”
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Sarah Marsh, Andrew Gray, Mark John, Ludwig Burger, Andreas Rinke, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Writing by Sarah Marsh and Matthias Williams; Editing by James Mackenzie and Toby Chopra)