US Secretary of State Marco Rubio departed on Thursday for the Munich Security Conference, where he aims to maintain pressure on Europe, although his tone is expected to be less confrontational than last year.
In 2025, President Donald Trump’s newly installed vice-president, JD Vance, delivered a scathing critique of European policies on immigration, populist parties and free speech, warning that freedom of expression was “in retreat” across the continent.
Vance also appeared to embrace the positions of far-right parties such as Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD).
This year, however, the vice-president — who has just concluded a visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan — is remaining in Washington.
Rubio, widely viewed as less ideological, will lead the US delegation to the annual security and defence talks, which run through Sunday in the Bavarian capital of Munich.
Even so, Washington intends to continue pressing its European allies, many of whom are still reeling from the political crisis triggered by Trump’s demands to acquire Greenland.
“We live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be,” Rubio told reporters aboard his aircraft before leaving Washington.
Crisis of confidence
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump—who has said the European Union was created to “screw” the United States—has kept Europe firmly in his sights.
In his new National Security Strategy, published in December, Trump criticised Europe as an over-regulated continent lacking “self-confidence” and facing “civilisational erasure” as a result of immigration.
In Munich on Friday and Saturday, Rubio is expected to continue urging Europe to shoulder more responsibility, particularly on collective defence.
However, his visit comes amid a serious erosion of trust between Washington and European capitals following the Greenland episode, which unsettled transatlantic relations.
What had once seemed unthinkable—a NATO member threatening to seize territory from an ally—became reality, prompting European governments to push back.
Trump later backed away from threats of territorial seizure and tariffs at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, instead promoting a framework agreement with NATO on Arctic security.
Nevertheless, the episode caused lasting damage, according to several European diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity.
For Philip Gordon of the Brookings Institution, Trump “doesn’t see a unified Europe as a partner of the United States, but as a threat”.
“The more unified it is, the more he dislikes it,” Gordon said last week.
A poll by Politico found that more than half of respondents in Germany do not regard the United States as a “reliable” ally.
“Honestly, they want to know where we’re heading, where we’d like to go, and where we’d like to go with them,” Rubio said on Thursday when asked what Europe hopes to gain from the conference.
Free speech
Alongside Greenland, discussions will focus on the durability of transatlantic unity, the US security umbrella and the war in Ukraine, as well as relations with Moscow.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is travelling to Germany, has said he hopes for a resumption of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For now, such discussions are confined to contacts between Washington and Moscow.
The Munich talks come just days before Trump convenes the inaugural meeting of his so-called “Board of Peace” on 19 February in Washington. Originally intended to manage post-war Gaza, the body’s remit now appears broader, drawing criticism as a potential rival to the United Nations.
Even in Vance’s absence, free speech in Europe will remain a sensitive topic. Rubio will be accompanied by Sarah Rogers, his undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and a vocal critic of EU policy.
The United States has clashed with Europe over efforts to regulate Big Tech and combat disinformation, arguing that such measures undermine free expression.
After Munich, Rubio is due to travel to Slovakia and then Hungary, both led by nationalist governments that have enjoyed Trump’s backing.
