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By Jordan King
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned Europe of a "new era in geopolitics" ahead of the Munich Security Conference this weekend.
"The world is changing very fast right in front of us," Rubio told reporters as he boarded a flight to Germany on Thursday night. "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."
Why It Matters
The future of America’s relationship with Europe is still uncertain as Donald Trump’s administration has struck a hard tone with its allies, the U.S. president warning that Europe faces "civilizational erasure."
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It comes a year after Vice President JD Vance delivered a blistering speech at Munich, accusing European allies of endangering Western civilization and not taking responsibility for their own defense.
NATO allies have since responded to this pressure and agreed to increase their defense spending targets and there has been talk from several European leaders that it is time to pull away from the U.S.
What To Know
While Rubio did issue his warning, he struck a softer tone than Vance last year, as he also added: "We’re very tightly linked together with Europe. Most people in this country can trace both, either their cultural or their personal heritage, back to Europe. So, we just have to talk about that."
Rubio is heading the U.S. delegation to Munich, where he will stay for two days, before heading to Slovakia and Hungary, according to The Associated Press.
He said on Thursday that he is expecting to be asked about Greenland.
Trump’s rhetoric about America taking Greenland from Denmark has only toughened, and last month he announced a 10 percent tariff on the nations that opposed his proposal.
Meanwhile, multiple European countries have united against Trump in the name of defending Danish and Greenlandic sovereignty, including the U.K, Germany and France.
This is one of the many things driving a wedge between America and Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron urged EU leaders to increase reforms to boost the bloc's competitiveness against China and the U.S. just a few days ago, arguing that Trump’s push to acquire Greenland should be a wake-up call for European leaders.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday called for the U.S. and Europe to "repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together."
Opening the Munich Security Conference, he said that a "divide, a deep rift" has opened up across the Atlantic and urged leaders to work toward a "new trans-Atlantic partnership."
He said that Europe’s "excessive dependency" on the U.S. was its own fault but spoke against "writing off NATO."
"We will (leave the dependency behind) by building a strong, self-supporting European pillar in the alliance, in our own interest," he said.
Topics on the agenda will likely include America’s nuclear discussions with Iran, the war in Ukraine and China.
What People Are Saying
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: "In the era of great-power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It’s also the United States’ competitive advantage, so let’s repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together."
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the conference: "There is a cost to the status quo and the status quo was not sustainable anymore."
Speaking about Vance’s speech last year, Claudia Major, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, said: "There is a big doubt whether the basis (of trust) is still there and whether we still share the same vision for the trans-Atlantic relationship. The longer this kind of estrangement goes, the more difficult it will be to refind a solid relationship."
What Happens Next
Rubio will address the Munich Security Conference and will be expected to field questions on Trump’s Greenland rhetoric, NATO commitments, Ukraine, China and Iran, after which he will travel to Slovakia and Hungary.
European leaders will continue to prepare plans for greater defense spending and strategic autonomy while signaling readiness to "repair and revive" ties, even as they debate contingency options if U.S. policy remains volatile.
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