Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended a meeting of NATO foreign ministers which began just a day after President Trump announced worldwide tariffs which will affect the U-S’s closest allies.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Europe this week, just a day after the president announced worldwide tariffs hitting the U.S.’s closest allies. Teri Schultz reports this issue overshadowed the gathering, which would normally be focused on increasing assistance to Ukraine and deterring Russian aggression.
TERI SCHULTZ, BYLINE: Of all the members of Trump’s cabinet, Secretary of State Rubio is perhaps the one on whom European governments pinned their highest hopes for appreciation of NATO. As a senator, he’d cosponsored legislation that would prevent a U.S. president from withdrawing from the military alliance without the Senate’s consent. In Brussels, Rubio did seek to reassure allies concerned about the president’s overtures to Russia and long-standing animosity toward Europe.
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MARCO RUBIO: President Trump’s made clear he’s – supports NATO. We’re going to remain in NATO.
SCHULTZ: However, his message was two-pronged, with a hefty price tag attached for those European countries which are only slowly building up their defense investments, even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
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RUBIO: And so we do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway – a realistic pathway – to every single one of the members committing and fulfilling a promise to reach up to 5% of spending.
SCHULTZ: That’s 5% of GDP the U.S. wants all NATO governments to allocate for military expenditures. Some of them aren’t even close to the 2% of GDP goal made 11 years ago. That demand did not come as a surprise. Trump has mentioned it repeatedly, but this week it carried an extra sting after the president announced a 20% tariff on all European Union goods entering the U.S. More than two-thirds of NATO allies are also members of the European Union. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp was among those expressing exasperation with the White House move, which is expected to dampen European economies.
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CASPAR VELDKAMP: The extra money we are willing to spend on defense, we don’t want to spend it on inflation. We want to spend it really on equipment, on defense and increasing our deterrence.
SCHULTZ: Jonatan Vseviov was Estonia’s ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s first term. Now the secretary general of Estonia’s foreign ministry, he refuses to get rattled about reports that while the U.S. may not withdraw from NATO, it may withdraw forces from Europe, step back from leadership roles or transfer some of its unique military capabilities to the Asia-Pacific region. Vseviov says, obviously, these changes would be problematic for Europe, but…
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JONATAN VSEVIOV: But that wouldn’t in of itself change the risk matrix of Estonia. I mean, we would then simply have to do more on our own. And it’s better to be prepared for that eventuality today, especially considering that developing military capability takes time, even if money is not an issue.
SCHULTZ: Whatever recommendations Rubio takes back to the president, he will have been reminded how seriously other countries take NATO solidarity.
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SCHULTZ: Four U.S. soldiers died on a training mission last week in Lithuania, which Rubio himself cited as evidence of U.S. engagement with the alliance. Lithuanians raised tens of thousands of dollars to send to the soldiers’ families, and hundreds of people lined the streets of the capital, Vilnius, to pay their respects as the bodies were sent home. For NPR News, I’m Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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