Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European allies Saturday that the United States has no intention of abandoning the trans-Atlantic alliance, delivering a keynote address at the Munich Security Conference that marked a notable shift in tone from the administration's posture a year ago. But while the delivery was warmer, the substance remained largely unchanged — a firm insistence that Europe must spend more on defense, tighten its borders, and abandon what Rubio characterized as self-destructive policies on trade, energy, and immigration.

"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," Rubio told the gathering of defense and security officials in the German city. "For us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe."

The line drew considerable applause from an audience that had braced for something far harsher. Last year, Vice President JD Vance used the same stage to lecture European leaders about what he called the "retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values," accusing them of abandoning commitments to free speech, religious liberty, and democratic governance. That speech shocked many in attendance and set a combative baseline for the administration's relationship with its oldest allies.

What Rubio Said — and Didn't Say

Rubio's 18-minute address leaned heavily on civilizational themes, framing the U.S.-European relationship not just in terms of military alliances and trade agreements but as a bond rooted in shared history, culture, and Christian heritage. He described the two continents as "heirs to the same great and noble civilization" and said that under President Donald Trump, "the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration."

He did not, however, walk back any of the administration's core positions. Rubio criticized what he called "mass migration" that is "transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West." He took aim at European energy policies enacted "to appease a climate cult," arguing they had impoverished the continent while competitors exploited fossil fuels to power their own economies. And he described post-Cold War trade liberalization as a "dangerous delusion" that led to deindustrialization and left Western nations "dependent on others for our needs."

"We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline," Rubio said. He added that while the U.S. is "prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference, and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe."

The speech drew on language from the Pentagon's 2025 National Security Strategy, which stated that "it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies" and warned of what it called the "real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure" in Europe.

European Leaders React

The response from European officials was mixed — relief at the tone, caution about the substance.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Rubio's remarks "very reassuring," but noted pointedly that "in the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics," an apparent reference to Vance and other hawkish voices in Trump's orbit.

Estonia's defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, said Rubio's description of America as "a child of Europe" was "quite a bold statement." He added that the speech was "needed here today, but that doesn't mean that we can rest on pillows now. Still a lot of work has to be done."

Germany's foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, told reporters that Rubio's message was clear: the partnership remains intact, even if significant disagreements persist. "Of course, there are some questions which we will have to discuss," Wadephul said, "but in the end of the day, his message was clear that we were so successful in the past, and we should do the job once again with new threats, with new tests in the 21st century."

Not everyone was as sanguine. France's Minister Delegate for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, pushed back on what he described as a reflexive European tendency to parse every American speech for reassurance. "The worst lesson we could draw from this weekend is to say 'I can cling to some love words I heard in part of his speech and push the snooze button,'" Haddad said, urging Europe to focus instead on its own rearmament, competitiveness, and support for Ukraine.

The Pushback on 'Civilizational Erasure'

The sharpest European response came Sunday from EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who directly rejected the framing that had underpinned both Rubio's speech and the administration's national security strategy.

"Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure," Kallas told the conference. "In fact, people still want to join our club, and not just fellow Europeans." She said she had been told during a recent visit to Canada that many people there had expressed interest in EU membership.

Kallas acknowledged that Rubio sent an important signal about the durability of the trans-Atlantic relationship. "It is also clear that we don't see eye to eye on all the issues and this will remain the case as well," she said, "but I think we can work from there."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking Saturday, offered his own counterpoint to the administration's cultural critique, saying Europe must defend "the vibrant, free and diverse societies that we represent, showing that people who look different to each other can live peacefully together, that this isn't against the tenor of our times. Rather, it is what makes us strong."

What the Speech Revealed About the Administration's Direction

Analysts noted that while Rubio's delivery differed from Vance's, the two speeches were more complementary than contradictory. Matthew Kroenig of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center observed that Rubio "did not repudiate anything in Vice President JD Vance's more pugnacious speech last year" but instead "presented the same themes in a more positive light, focusing on shared challenges facing both Europe and the United States."

Dan Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for Europe, described the contrasting speeches as reflecting the administration's "different impulses" — one inclined to "pick new fights or engage in unresolvable culture wars," the other inclined to "take the win" on the broader argument about European defense spending and burden-sharing.

Some European diplomats remained skeptical. One former official told reporters that if the narrowest common ground the administration could identify was "our common history going back to Columbus, narrow national security interests and common civilization, that alone shows how far apart Europe and the U.S. are drifting." Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb was more blunt, saying the ideological undercurrent of Trump's "Make America Great Again" agenda is fundamentally "anti-liberal world order" and "anti-climate change."

Rubio departed Munich on Sunday for visits to Hungary and Slovakia — two countries that have moved in a more nationalist direction under their current leadership — a scheduling choice that did not go unnoticed by European lawmakers watching for signals about where Washington's real sympathies lie.