EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Every year, the Munich Security Conference brings together hundreds of global leaders - from heads of government, military, international organizations and more - to discuss the most pressing joint security and diplomatic issues. Today's headliner was U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. His much-anticipated remarks come at a deeply uneasy moment for the trans-Atlantic relationship and tensions following last year's speech from Vice President JD Vance, which shocked attendees with scorching criticism of European politics and a confrontational tone. Well, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Mary Louise Kelly is in Germany and has on-the-ground reporting for us of today's events.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: Hey, Emily, thank you. I am, indeed, in Germany, where the 62nd Munich Security Conference is in full swing all around us and where Secretary of State Marco Rubio has answered the question that's been on everybody's minds here in this lovely Bavarian city the last couple of days - the question, would America blow up the Trans-Atlantic Alliance or engage and try to make it stronger? Well, it is Valentine's Day, and all the prime ministers and foreign ministers, all the dignitaries who are all around me here in Munich - they did not, alas, get flowers and boxes of chocolates from the U.S., but Secretary Rubio did offer this.
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MARCO RUBIO: So in a time of headlines, heralding the end of the trans-Atlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish.
KELLY: Chair of the conference Wolfgang Ischinger hopped on stage with Secretary Rubio. Right after that, he said - I don't know if you could hear the collective sigh of relief - thank you for the reassurance. Let's bring in NPR diplomatic correspondent, Michele Kelemen. She's traveling with Rubio inside the security bubble, and it's quite the bubble, Michele. He just brushed past me in the hall. He had about 20 scary looking security guys, which, considering the perimeter security checks we all had to go through to get in here, is saying something.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Oh, yeah. And he keeps moving around in these posses, mostly having meetings kind of on one floor in this building, back and forth, having what they call pull-asides in clutches, kind of five-, 10-minute meetings with a lot of leaders here.
KELLY: Speed dating for diplomats.
KELEMEN: Exactly.
KELLY: OK, so we are here - just to situate everybody, you and I, Michele, are here on this balcony. We're looking over the main front entrance of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel here in Munich. You were in the room. When Secretary Rubio gave a speech, was there an audible sigh of relief?
KELEMEN: He got a standing ovation, and I think there was some relief from some people. But when you went back and listen to what he actually said, I think there are a lot of questions that Europeans are asking themselves now. I mean, for instance, he talked a lot about shared values but not the shared values of democracy and a rules-based order, which he called an overused term. It was more about Christianity and what he called civilizational alliances. He said it was a mistake for the U.S. to allow, as he sees it, mass migration, which is leading to civilizational erasure. Those are the kinds of terms that he was using there. And he said, you know, he's really working to fix these things. The U.S. can do that on its own but would rather do it with partners. And that was where kind of at least people felt there was a place for Europe. Take a listen.
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RUBIO: For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.
KELLY: So, Michele, would it - if you were writing the headline, would it be fair to sum it up as, Rubio stayed remarkably on message with White House talking points about Europe, about NATO, about the Alliance. But he managed to do it in a - what? - a silkier, more diplomatic way than JD Vance when he showed up and launched a grenade in the proceedings here last year.
KELEMEN: Yeah, I mean, exactly. It was a lot of the same things that JD Vance talked about last year, though he talked a lot more about right-wing politics and some more MAGA talking points. But, you know, it's funny, Mary Louise, because I saw Gavin Newsom here, the Democratic governor of California, and he was saying that JD Vance lowered the bar so far that, you know, Rubio was going to be graded on a curve. And I think...
KELLY: Rubio would have gotten applause no matter what he'd said...
KELEMEN: Exactly.
KELLY: ...As long as it was not JD Vance. OK, so, Michele, other than not blowing up the alliance, anything else strike you about Rubio's remarks?
KELEMEN: You know, climate change is a big issue in Europe and around the world. But he talked about the climate cult. And I was listening - a little bit afterwards, there was a, - actually a session on climate change because that is a big issue for Europeans and for international security. And Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was there, and he apologized for that Rubio statement. He said that that comment is not going to age well. So, you know, you're seeing a lot of Democrats here in the hallways, at panels, kind of, you know, raising questions like, hey, Europe, we're still here, and maybe we'll have a turn in the future.
KELLY: NPR's Michele Kelemen, so great to see you in Germany. Safe travels.
KELEMEN: Thank you.
KELLY: And shortly after Secretary Rubio spoke, I met up here with France's foreign minister. He gave us his only interview here in Munich. Here it is.
Jean-Noel Barrot is France's minister for Europe and foreign affairs, so France's top diplomat. Welcome, bienvenue, enchantee.
JEAN-NOEL BARROT: Merci beaucoup, thank you very much.
KELLY: We are speaking one floor up from where the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, spoke today here at the Munich Security Conference. He received a standing ovation. And I wonder, do you believe that is because America's allies loved what he had to say, or because you feared it might be so much worse?
BARROT: I believe that if the crowd here welcomed Secretary Rubio's remarks, it's because he emphasized two important points. One is the historical links between the U.S. and Europe. Let us not forget that 250 years ago, France and the U.S. invented democracy. And the second thing that I think people took away from his remarks is that there are some challenges that, in some sense, the U.S. cannot overcome alone.
KELLY: It is true that Secretary Rubio spoke warmly of the shared history between Europe and the U.S. It's also true that he said, hey, the U.S. doesn't want to blow up the trans-Atlantic Alliance. We want to make it stronger. But as I was listening, I heard him saying, what comes next is a choice for Europe.
BARROT: And that's...
KELLY: You're with us, or you're weak, and you're declining. I mean, did you hear a, it's our way, or you're on your own?
BARROT: So what we've been hearing from the United States for a long time now is Europe become stronger and more independent.
KELLY: Is President Trump the wake-up call that Europe needed?
BARROT: The way we see it from Paris and from France is that the messages that President Trump is now conveying are the same that he conveyed in his first term and that to a very large extent, it's - these are bipartisan messages that we received loud and clear. And if we've done so much over the past 10 years to increase our sovereignty and our independence, it's also because we've heard from our partner allies (ph) that action was expected on our end.
KELLY: One on Ukraine - is it a problem that peace talks over Ukraine, a European nation, do not include Europeans?
BARROT: One way or another, Europe will be included in those discussions. There can be no peace in Ukraine without Europe. There is no sanction lifting. There is no security guarantee. There is no financial support if Europe is not included. So we support...
KELLY: But you would like a seat at the table for those talks?
BARROT: At some point, the seat at the table will be drawn for Europe. Right now, what's positive is that under the U.S. mediation that we have supported and that we support, there are direct discussions between Ukrainians and Russian negotiators. This is good, and it should continue.
KELLY: For the many Americans listening to us who are trying to figure out, will the trans-Atlantic security not just survive but thrive? - you say what?
BARROT: I think it's in the interest of the United States and in the interest of Europe because of geography that will not change to...
KELLY: Is that a yes?
BARROT: ...To further our alliance in a time where threat is increasing in the Arctic, in the southern flank of the trans-Atlantic alliance, and obviously on the East with Russia being a major threat to not only the security of the European continent, but also to its civilizational project, to democracy, to freedom. And I think that freedom and democracy mean something in the United States of America.
KELLY: But forgive me - you're saying it is in both of our interests, both of our countries' interests.
BARROT: Yeah.
KELLY: Are you confident that it will, in fact, survive and thrive?
BARROT: Well, you tell me. We're developing European capacity and vision within NATO, within the trans-Atlantic Alliance. But then it will all depend on the weight, on the importance that the U.S. will ascribe to NATO. What they have been telling us for a long time now is that they want Europe to take a bigger share of the responsibility, which is exactly what we're doing in close coordination with them.
KELLY: Jean-Noel Barrot is the foreign minister of France, speaking to us here in the middle of the Munich Security Conference. Good to see you. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.
BARROT: Merci beaucoup (ph). Thank you very much.
KWONG: That was ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host Mary Louise Kelly, who has been at the Munich Security Conference along with NPR's diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen, reporting on the mixed reaction from European stakeholders to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's headliner speech today. Now, tomorrow is the last day of the event, and we'll have more coverage from the conference and how what's discussed there will play out around the world in the coming days and months.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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