US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on a diplomatic tour of Europe this week, which began on Monday in Iceland and continued in Greece, and will end today in Portugal. The European tour of the US first diplomat is among the main topics in the press in the US and the UK.
Great Britain
Marco Rubio called on Western countries to uphold traditional values, the British newspaper "Financial Times" headlines. In his speech in Athens, the US Secretary of State warned that the alternative is "atrophy, slavery and decline" for the rest of the century.
"We are at a crossroads because the next decade and the decisions we make will write the history of the next century," Rubio said, adding: "Either we choose to act now or we lose the opportunity to act at all," is another quote he gave in the "Financial Times".
According to him, the US believes that Europe can "awaken from its long sleep," the British publication notes. Rubio pointed to rising defense spending and new partnerships as signs of "generational change". "Today it has become fashionable to believe that enlightened foreign policy means prioritizing the "global community" over one's own people. And here we have much to learn from the men of Ancient Greece, because they knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong in loyalty to one's own nation, nor in fighting to protect its interests above all else, "said the Secretary of State.
Rubio's comments come at a time when the government of Donald Trump is sharply criticizing allies in Europe, accusing them of betraying traditional values and a common civilizational heritage dating back to ancient Greece and Rome, the "Financial Times" indicates.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has made similar accusations against European governments throughout his tenure as the second person in the Trump administration, including during his speech at the Munich Security Conference last year, the British newspaper notes.
Both Vance and Rubio are considered possible successors to Trump in the White House after the 2028 elections, which means that the confrontational The US approach to Europe is likely to continue if the Republican Party retains the presidency.
The US National Security Strategy, published late last year, warns that the continent faces the risk of "civilizational erasure" due to its migration policy and efforts to regulate big tech companies, which the US government sees as an attack on free speech, the Financial Times recalls. The publication adds that State Department officials have allocated millions of dollars in grants to organizations in Europe supporting Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, which seek to fight "censorship" and develop "civilizational ties" between the US and the continent.
The Trump administration's antipathy towards Europe is in many ways a continuation of America's own internal culture wars, with Brussels seen as a bastion of liberal elites, the "Financial Times" emphasizes.
Rubio made these wide-ranging comments in a speech on the rocky Pnyx hill in Athens, where since the 5th century BC Athenians have gathered to discuss and vote on city affairs, and which is considered the birthplace of direct democracy, the British newspaper notes.
His visit to Athens is the second stop on his four-day diplomatic tour of Europe, which began on Monday in Iceland, where he discussed economic cooperation and security in the Arctic. After Greece, Rubio's next stop is the Portuguese capital Lisbon, where he will discuss bilateral cooperation in the fields of defense, economics and technology.
USA
Rubio's speech in Greece suggests greater ambitions - the secretary of state gave a speech befitting a politician trying to inherit the leadership role in the MAGA movement from President Donald Trump, reads a headline in the American newspaper "Washington Post".
In a lengthy speech yesterday, dedicated to the virtues of Western civilization, Rubio tried to fit President Donald Trump's "America First" program into the broader Western tradition of national ambition and reinvention, the newspaper notes.
Rubio called on Americans to join the intellectual tradition of Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton and to resist the "modern" impulse to elevate "the mediocre, the ordinary, the mediocre", the "Washington Post" points out. The speech was a massive production, with staff operating four State Department video cameras, including one mounted on a crane to capture footage of the secretary of state on the historic Pnyx Hill in Athens, the publication said.
This comes as Vice President J.D. Vance begins to outline what his expected 2028 presidential bid would look like, and Rubio has dodged any questions about his future political ambitions, the "Washington Post" notes. According to the newspaper, however, his statement is remarkable because he not only defends the foreign policy of the Trump administration, but also tries to define what America, which is vacillating between modernity and tradition, should become.
Rubio praised Greek social life, organized, in his words, "around competition, ambition and competition". He criticized liberal extremes for lowering standards, "in order to ensure that no one loses". He also condemned political Islam and "radical mullahs in Iran, whose cult of death glorifies child suicides as national heroes and presents martyrdom as an end in itself", the American publication writes.
"Our heroes may be willing to die for their cause, but our heroes do not bow to death", he said, quoted by "The Washington Post". Looking ahead, Rubio called for the United States to dominate in the areas of drone warfare, strategic raw materials, cybersecurity and – "superintelligence" - Trump's new term for artificial intelligence, the "Washington Post" points out.
At a press conference earlier yesterday, Rubio was asked whether the US government would play a role in limiting the threat that artificial intelligence poses to humanity, the publication emphasized. He expressed confidence in the task force created by Trump, which gives Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton the authority to "mitigate the potential negative aspects of superintelligence, but also to take advantage of its positive aspects".
Sitting in front of Rubio was U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has come under fire from Senate Democrats for a recent Wall Street Journal article that alleged she threatened to use the power given to her by the U.S. government to destabilize the Greek government.
When asked whether her behavior violated State Department ethics rules, Rubio said he did not want to discuss the issue at the press conference. "Suffice it to say, our embassy here does an excellent job. "Our ambassador here is really doing a great job," he said, quoted by the "Washington Post".