His remarks followed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech in Munich, which referenced Make America Great Again themes by emphasizing the shared heritage and Christian values between Europe and America, while also affirming European countries as U.S. allies.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, a Trump ally, also emphasized in an interview with POLITICO: “The Americans are not leaving.”
This was a stark difference from the hostility towards Europe displayed last year by U.S. Vice President JD Vance during his Munich appearance.
However, Stubb noted that Rubio’s remarks on America shifting conventional defense responsibilities to Europe while concentrating on the Western Hemisphere and Asia are not that different from Vance’s stance.
“I think we lowered the temperature in the transatlantic relationship,” Stubb said, mentioning his roughly half-hour discussion with Rubio post-speech, and added: “We respect countries’ sovereign choices.”
Stubb highlighted that Rubio’s comments demonstrated a clear prioritization for Washington: “No. 1 is the Western Hemisphere, No. 2 is the Indo-Pacific, and then No. 3 is Europe.”
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