Marco Rubio says Nato must be 'reimagined' as Europe boosts defence capabilities
US state secretary Marco Rubio told the US Senate that Nato “needs to be reimagined,” saying European allies must rapidly increase defence capabilities to offer meaningful security guarantees, and said he was confident of a “positive resolution” on Greenland as technical talks begin.
Rubio argued that current security guarantees ultimately rely on a US backstop, saying “the security guarantee is the US backstop,” and that deployments of a handful of European troops would be “irrelevant” without it. He said allies had “not invested enough in their own defence capabilities over the last 20 or 30 years,” and added that stronger European partners would make Nato stronger and give the US more global flexibility.
On Greenland, Rubio said the US has a “longstanding” national security interest and that talks were starting in a “very professional, straightforward way.” He said there would be technical-level meetings between the US and partners in Greenland and Denmark and that he hoped the process would be regular and not “like a media circus,” adding “we are going to get something positive done.” European leaders are also emphasising greater defence independence.
France’s Emmanuel Macron told a press conference with the Danish and Greenlandic prime ministers that a recent standoff over Greenland was “a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe,” saying in Greenlandic “Greenland is not for sale” before switching to Danish to express solidarity.
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