appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Finbarr Bermingham

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Munich Security Conference that it would be “geopolitical malpractice” not to talk to China, as he pledged that Washington would carefully manage its differences with Beijing.
“Because we’re two large countries with huge global interests, our national interests will often not align,” Rubio told the event in a keynote address on Saturday morning.
“We owe it to the world to try to manage those as best we can, obviously avoiding conflict, both economic and worse … but no one is under any illusion that bilateral relations will have fundamental changes.”
Rubio’s remarks – ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected trip to Beijing in April – were a continuation of his government’s softer rhetoric towards Beijing, even as he tried to rally the US’ allies against unnamed common challenges to Western civilisation.
“We have to have a relationship with China, and many of the countries represented here today are going to have to have a relationship with China, always understanding that nothing that we agree to could come at the expense of our national interest,” Rubio said.
He added that the “goal of diplomacy is to try to navigate those times in which our national interests come into conflict with one another, always hoping to do it peacefully”.
Rubio is the highest-ranking US speaker at the annual security conference this year, breaking with years of tradition in which Washington sent its vice-president.
Last year, Munich was stunned by US Vice-President J.D. Vance’s hardline remarks on Europe. While Rubio’s rhetoric was more conciliatory in tone and talked up the transatlantic alliance, the underlying message was much the same.
Europe is the US’ “oldest friend” and the US’ “cherished ally”, Rubio said, adding “we want Europe to be strong”.
“We believe that Europe must survive. Because the two great wars of the last century serve for us as history’s constant reminder that ultimately our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours,” he said.


However, he revisited some of Vance’s most controversial talking points, warning the Europeans that they must get on board with Trump’s policies, if they were to “rebuke and deter the forces of civilisational erasure”.
“We are part of one civilisation, Western civilisation. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history,” Rubio told the gathering.
“We want allies who can defend themselves, so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength. This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilisation.”
A day after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the conference that the global rules-based order no longer existed, Rubio said the very idea of such an order was “foolish”.
The rules-based global order was “an overused term”, Rubio said, while the idea that it would “now replace the national interest, and that we would now live in a world without borders, where everyone became a citizen of the world” was a “foolish” one “that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history”.
“In a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish, because for us Americans, our home may be in the western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” he said.
Rubio said the US wanted an alliance that did not allow its power to be “outsourced, constrained or subordinated to systems beyond its control”.
The end of the transatlantic alliance was “nor our goal or wish”, he said.
On one of Europe’s biggest foreign policy concerns, Rubio said the United States did not know whether Russia was serious about ending the war in Ukraine, “but we will continue to test them”.
He also said the US would continue to use sanctions against Russia.
“I don’t think anybody in this room would be against a negotiated settlement to this war, so long as the conditions are just and sustainable … But we’re going to continue to try to achieve it, even as all these other things continue to happen on the sanctions front.”


Addressing the issue of supply chains, he said: “The loss of our supply chain sovereignty was not a function of a prosperous and healthy system of global trade, it was foolish.
“Together we can not only take back control of our own industries and supply chains, we can prosper in the areas that will define the 21st century.”
Turning to the United Nations, he said the institution “still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world, but we cannot ignore that today on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role”.
“We cannot place the so-called global order above the vital interests of our people and our nations.
“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 said, without elaborating.
“This is the path that President Trump and the United States has embarked upon. It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on,” he said, capping a speech that ended with loud applause.
The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that Trump was expected to visit China in early April, where the fragile truce reached during his Busan summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October would be extended.
In advance, many had anticipated a less hostile speech towards Europe than that delivered by White House’s No 2 Vance, last year.
In remarks to reporters before leaving the US, Rubio said Europe “wants to know where we’re going”, adding that he thought his speech would be “well received”.
Vance used his speech last year to warn Europe that the most serious threat it faced was “not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within”.


Xi to get presidential airport welcome from Trump during US visit starting Wednesday

Chinese province urges firms to seize the day as Xi-Trump meeting provides trade stability

Former WTO head Pascal Lamy on the EU’s China choice: get a rebalance, or go protectionist

US announces AI dialogue with China, launches Board of Trade

US-China relations

China and US must talk – we owe it to the world, Rubio tells Munich Security Conference

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the highest-ranking US speaker at the annual security conference this year. Photo: AP

Win-win, not zero-sum, China’s Wang Yi tells US’ Marco Rubio in Munich talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Photo: AFP

Marco Rubio and Wang Yi with their respective delegations meet on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Photo: Pool via Reuters

US’ Rubio says China profited from Venezuela’s collapse through cut-price oil

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Photo: EPA

Trump names Blair, Rubio to Gaza ‘board of peace’

Former British prime minister Tony Blair speaks at the International Bali Airshow in Indonesia in September 2024. Photo: Reuters

Then British prime minister Tony Blair addresses troops in Basra, Iraq, in May 2003. Photo: AP

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner attend a press conference in Paris, France, on January 6. Photo: Reuters

Cold shoulder? China and EU in diplomatic stand-off ahead of Munich showdown

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to the Munich Security Conference this week will be closely watched for possible breakthroughs in Beijing’s relationship with the European Union. Photo: Reuters

Alden Biesen castle in Rijkhoven, Belgium, where EU leaders are expected to gather on Thursday for a meeting ahead of the Munich Security Conference, which begins in Germany on Friday. Photo: AFP

Trump’s ‘vacillating’ China policy causing allies’ crisis of confidence: security report

Munich Security Report 2026 says “the world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics”. Photo: Handout

Munich Security Report 2026. Photo: Reuters

News

China

Diplomacy

US secretary of state reaffirms American commitment to the transatlantic alliance, saying ‘Europe must survive’


US secretary of state reaffirms American commitment to the transatlantic alliance, saying ‘Europe must survive’.


China and US must talk – we owe it to the world, Rubio tells Munich Security Conference

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US secretary of state reaffirms American commitment to the transatlantic alliance, saying ‘Europe must survive’

US secretary of state reaffirms American commitment to the transatlantic alliance, saying ‘Europe must survive’