Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is attending the Munich Security Conference, could have an opportunity to clearly define Washington’s relationships with its European allies after a turbulent year in foreign policy.
The conference brings together dozens of key international security officials and leaders to discuss important issues this weekend.
Mr. Rubio said he expects to discuss U.S. policy on Greenland and Russia with European officials and may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines. He will also reportedly meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Mr. Rubio will also meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who will give the opening address at the Munich conference, on Friday.
During remarks to the press Thursday at Joint Base Andrews before his flight to Europe, Mr. Rubio said he expects to discuss several existing and emerging U.S. global security goals with international leaders.
“The old world is gone — frankly, the world that I grew up in — and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to sort of reexamine what that looks like and what our role is going to be,” he said. “We’ve had many of these conversations in private with many of our allies, and they are our allies, and we need to continue to have those conversations. And I think Saturday, hopefully, and the meetings we’ll have there will move us in that direction.”
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The secretary also intends to travel to Slovakia and Hungary following the conference, which takes place from Feb. 13-15.
Mr. Rubio is following Vice President J.D. Vance, who spoke at the conference last year and shocked Washington’s European allies by haranguing them over their leftist domestic agendas that he said were endangering free speech and Western civilization.
The secretary’s remarks may take a more tactile approach, hoping to ease European fears after a hectic year of foreign policy shifts. In particular, Mr. Rubio may need to engage European leaders over their fears of a U.S. takeover of Greenland, after President Trump spent much of the latter half of 2025 arguing that annexation may be necessary for the security of the Western hemisphere.
Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about Greenland has seriously hurt Washington’s standing among several of its longstanding allies, including France and Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron both opened consulates in Greenland’s capital city of Nuuk last week in a clear show of support for the country and Denmark.
The conference comes as the Trump administration tries desperately to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which is rapidly approaching its fourth year. The U.S. recently brokered trilateral peace talks with Russia and Ukraine after months of diplomatic maneuvering. However, leaders from both sides have been quick to point out that key issues, namely land concessions, remain open questions during negotiations.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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