U.S. ready to make up, Europe ready to break up in Munich : NPR
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers a speech during the 62nd Munich Security Conference February 14 in Munich, Germany.
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MUNICH — After last year’s conference on free speech and democracy by Vice President Vance shocked many European leaders, expectations for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s follow-up at this year’s Munich security conference could not have been lower.
And with that bar set as low as possible, Rubio cleared it – barely. A year ago, Vance attacked Europe for allowing what he saw as uncontrolled migration.
But Rubio took a different approach: He said immigration has also become a challenge in the United States. And he added that together the United States and postwar Europe had “a dangerous illusion” that they had entered “the end of history” and that “every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the bonds formed by trade and by trade alone would now replace national identity.” But the end result was “an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture and the future of our people.”
Throughout his speech, Rubio brought Europeans closer to the destiny of the United States, highlighting the contributions of European countries to the construction of the New World. “Our borders were shaped by the Scots-Irish, that proud Hardy clan of the Ulster hills,” Rubio said. “It gave us Davy Crockett and Mark Twain. And Teddy Roosevelt and Neil Armstrong. Our great Midwestern heartland was built by German farmers and artisans who transformed empty plains into a global agricultural powerhouse.”
Rubio also cited the contributions of the Italians, French and Spanish to the formation of the United States, but he neglected to mention the Native Americans whom many of these groups left devastated. He didn’t mention how these groups exploited African slaves, or the Chinese who helped build the railroad in the American West, or the contributions of so many other cultures that made the United States what it is today.
And when Rubio finished, European leaders gathered inside the Bayerischer Hof hotel rewarded him with a standing ovation. Conference organizer Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the United States, took the stage and said Europe was “breathing a sigh of relief,” referring to the leaders present, whose countries had long depended on U.S. security guarantees and trade, and who were painfully coming to terms with being removed.
One official who was unimpressed by Rubio’s cherry-picked story about the early history of the United States was European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who wore a horrified look and was one of the few people in the room who did not immediately rise to applause.
February 15, Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, delivers a speech at the 62nd Munich Security Conference.
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“Contrary to what some might say, decadent and awakened Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” she said on stage on the final day of the conference.
Kallas was not the only one hesitant to be reassured by a member of the Trump administration. One of the most notable speeches of the three-day conference came from a leader not generally known for his rousing, unifying speech: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
In his matter-of-fact speech delivered on Friday, the conference’s opening day, Merz emphasized that the theme of this year’s conference, titled “Under Destruction,” was a dark vision of a rules-based international order.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz talks with Wolfgang Ischinger (no photo), chairman of the Munich Security Conference, after delivering his speech at the conference on February 13.
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“But I fear we have to put it in even harsher terms: that order, as imperfect as it was in its heyday, no longer exists,” he said.
Merz lambasted the intimidating nature of “great power politics” pursued by the United States under President Trump, China and Russia. “Great power politics is turning away from a world in which increasing connectivity translates into the rule of law and peaceful relations between states,” Merz said. “Natural resources, technologies and supply chains become bargaining tools in the zero-sum game of great powers. It’s a dangerous game.”
Merz told conference attendees that Germany and the rest of Europe had learned lessons from World War II about “great power” governance and he urged European countries to pool their resources to resist those great powers and build a new European economy that will compete with those great powers while preserving democratic values.
“Russia’s GDP is currently around 2 trillion euros, but that of the European Union is almost 10 times higher,” Merz said, “but Europe is still not 10 times stronger. Our military, political, economic and technological potential is enormous, but we have not tapped into this potential for a very long time, so the most important thing is to turn the knob in our minds now.”
Merz acknowledged that the current geopolitical climate has forced Germany to change the way it funds its military so it can operate “at full speed,” but he said harnessing that pressure to create something new and good is now Europe’s responsibility.
And while European leaders may give visiting Trump administration officials a standing ovation when they hear renewed hope for transatlantic relations, the tenor of this year’s Munich Security Conference showed that these shows of appreciation are just that.
Europe is moving forward.
