Sec. Marco Rubio spoke with reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The markets are crashing around the world for the second day in a row.
00:04The consensus is that the President's tariffs were much higher than expected,
00:09and based on economic formulas that people do not understand.
00:14What is your reaction, and what is the impact on Europeans?
00:18You want them to spend more on defense, which they are agreeing to finally,
00:22but how can they do that when their economies are crashing and they are now afraid to do it?
00:27No, their economies are not crashing.
00:29The markets are reacting.
00:30No, their economies are not crashing.
00:32Their markets are reacting to a dramatic change in the global order in terms of trade.
00:37And so what happens is pretty straightforward.
00:39If you're a company and you make a bunch of your products in China,
00:42and all of a sudden shareholders or people that play the stock market realize
00:47that it's going to cost a lot more to produce in China, your stock is going to go down.
00:51But ultimately, the markets, as long as they know what the rules are going to be moving forward
00:55and as long as that's set and you can sustain where you're going to be, the markets will adjust.
01:00Businesses around the world, including in trade and global trade,
01:03they just need to know what the rules are.
01:05Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules.
01:08So I don't think it's fair to say economies are crashing.
01:10Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies
01:14who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.
01:18We have to be a country that thinks we're the largest consumer market in the world,
01:21and yet the only thing we export is services, and we need to stop that.
01:24We need to get back to a time where we're a country that can make things,
01:27and to do that we have to reset the global order of trade.
01:30Well, the worst thing is to leave it the way it is forever.
01:33I mean, this just can't continue.
01:35We can't continue to be a country that doesn't make things.
01:37We have to be able to make things to provide jobs for Americans.
01:40That's it. It's that simple.
01:43China is an example. I mean, it's outrageous.
01:45I mean, they don't consume anything.
01:47All they do is export and flood and distort markets
01:50in addition to all the tariffs and barriers they put in place.
01:52So the president rightly has concluded that the current status of global trade
01:57is bad for America and good for a bunch of other people,
02:00and he's going to reset it, and he's absolutely right to do it.
02:02Let me ask you about also the predictability of relationships with allies.
02:07The prime minister of Greenland, excuse me, the prime minister of Denmark,
02:13which at this point owns Greenland, so Denmark, a NATO ally,
02:18is saying that it's unacceptable that one country cannot annex another country.
02:23We're not going to annex anything. It's going to be up to Greenlanders.
02:26The vice president made that clear.
02:27He's going to respect the self-determination of Greenlanders.
02:31So at some point, the Greenlanders have made clear that they want to be independent of Denmark.
02:35Denmark should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don't want to be a part of Denmark.
02:40That's what they should focus on.
02:41We didn't give them that idea. They've been talking about that for a long time.
02:44Whenever they make that decision, they'll make that decision.
02:47And then what we're not going to do is let China come in now and say,
02:50offer them a bunch of money and become dependent on China.
02:53The president said he would not rule out using military force against Denmark, a NATO ally.
02:58No, he said he would not rule out. No, no, no.
03:00He said he would not rule out.
03:01He said, I'm not going to rule out anything if Greenland is encroached upon by a foreign power
03:06like a China or Russia or anybody else.
03:09But it doesn't matter because Greenlanders are going to make a decision.
03:12They're the ones that want to get away from Denmark.
03:14They're the ones that want to be independent.
03:16Not us.
03:17We didn't come up with that idea.
03:18They did.
03:19And if they make that decision, then the United States would stand ready, potentially,
03:22to step in and say, OK, we can create a partnership with you.
03:24We're not at that stage.
03:25But that's what the vice president made clear last week in his visit there.
03:28His statement was abundantly clear, that we will respect the self-determination of the people of Greenland.
03:34People of Greenland.
03:35And they're the ones that want to leave Denmark.
03:36That wasn't our idea.
03:37All right.
03:38Well, second question here.
03:39Missy from Washington Post.
03:40Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you about Russia and Ukraine.
03:43Can you tell us about the American assessment of the conditions that Russia put forward
03:51regarding the Black Sea ceasefire talks?
03:54And also, the British and French foreign ministers said this morning that Putin was dragging his feet.
04:01Do you agree with that?
04:02Maybe.
04:03He might be.
04:04We don't know yet.
04:05We're going to find out fairly soon.
04:06I mean, look, here's what the president wanted to do.
04:09He wants to end this war.
04:10And he wanted to test it very early in his administration.
04:12Is it possible to end this war on terms that are acceptable, obviously, to both sides?
04:16Because you can't end a war unless both sides agree.
04:18And that's what we're in the process of finding out.
04:20We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not.
04:25I hope they are.
04:26It would be good for the world if that war ended.
04:28But, obviously, we have to test that proposition.
04:30So we're working through that process.
04:32We had a visitor that Mr. Kirill was here this week, had a chance to sit down with him.
04:36He met with others.
04:37He'll take some messages back.
04:39And the message is the United States needs to know whether you're serious or not about peace.
04:42Ultimately, Putin will have to make that decision.
04:45The Russian Federation will have to make that decision.
04:47I think the Ukrainians have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire to create space for negotiation.
04:55At some point here, fairly soon, not six months from now, the Russians and Putin will have to make a decision about whether they're serious about peace or not.
05:03And I hope they are serious.
05:04It would be good for the world if that war ended.
05:06What is your assessment of the Russian conditions that were put forward?
05:09And also, Dmitry has said, following his talks with Mr. Whitcock yesterday, that the U.S. and Russia might resume direct flights as maybe a confidence-building measure.
05:17Do you support that?
05:19I haven't heard anything about direct flights.
05:20I can tell you.
05:21But I don't know who's going to fly in it because all these people are sanctioned.
05:24But I would just tell you that the thing I would point to you is this.
05:28I'm not – we're going to wait and see.
05:30The Russians know our position in terms of wanting to end the war.
05:33And we will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether this is a delay tactic.
05:39It's a delay tactic.
05:40The President is not interested in that.
05:42If this is dragging things out, President Trump is not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations about negotiations.
05:48We will know soon enough whether or not Russia is serious about peace.
05:52If they are, that will be great.
05:53Then we can move towards peace.
05:54If they're not, then we'll have to reevaluate where we stand and what we do moving forward about it.
06:00But we'll be in no different a position than we are today – or we were when he took office.
06:04He wanted to know early in his administration, is peace possible?
06:07We're testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace.
06:10Their actions – not their words.
06:11Their actions will determine whether they're serious or not.
06:14And we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.
06:16And what about their conditions?
06:18Which conditions?
06:19They put forward additional conditions after –
06:21Yeah, so, again, I mean, this is part of the back and forth of these sorts of things.
06:26I've had phone calls with foreign leaders, and then I read the readout, and it's like, oh, we said, no, you never –
06:30they came, they said something to me they never said.
06:33I guess that's part of the game in this place or whatever.
06:35But, look, I don't – bottom line is, to me, at the end of the day, what's going to matter here is whether we're going to move towards peace or not.
06:41If peace is real, we will know soon enough.
06:43If they're not interested in peace, we will know soon enough.
06:46And we'll make decisions on the basis, I hope they are real.
06:49There are some promising signs.
06:50There are some troubling signs.
06:51It's not going to be easy.
06:53No one ever said this would be easy.
06:54But we're going to find out sooner rather than later.
06:57And let's just say I'm hopeful.
06:59I remain hopeful.
07:00I need to be hopeful that peace is possible and that the Russians are serious about peace.
07:04We want them to be serious about peace.
07:06And hopefully they are.
07:07But we'll know sooner rather than later.
07:09Daphne Reuters.
07:10Hi.
07:11Sorry, I'm back here.
07:12Your last name's Reuters?
07:13Daphne Soledad.
07:14Oh, that's pretty cool, isn't it?
07:16Go ahead.
07:17On the 5 percent defense spending target, have you received pushback to this idea while you've been here this week?
07:23And you mentioned yesterday up to 5 percent was your language.
07:26What do you mean by up to 5 percent?
07:29Well, I said up to a path of getting up to 5 percent at some point.
07:32I'm not saying overnight, but to get to that point.
07:34We think that's what NATO allies need to be spending for NATO to face the threats that itself has identified and articulated.
07:41Here's the good news.
07:42The good news is everyone generally, with a couple exceptions, are spending more on defense today than they were three, four, five years ago.
07:48That's positive.
07:49That trend needs to continue.
07:51So the trend lines are good, but they need to continue.
07:53But this is not about spending.
07:55This is not about money necessarily.
07:56This is about capability.
07:58In order for NATO to be stronger, it needs partners that are stronger.
08:02The United States commits a lot to NATO and continues to.
08:05We are as involved in NATO today as we have ever been.
08:08And we intend to continue to be.
08:10But it has to be a real alliance.
08:11And that means that our alliance partners have to increase their own capabilities.
08:15So hopefully two things have led to that.
08:17The first is the war in Ukraine, I think, has woken up a lot of people on the continent about real threats and real war.
08:22And the other is, I think, the pressure and the statements of President Trump that have been pretty consistent about increasing their spending.
08:29So this whole trajectory of more defense spending began, I believe, back in 2017, 2018, under President Trump's first term.
08:37We want that trend to continue.
08:39And we're hoping when the leaders meet in The Hague that there will be further and firmer commitments in that direction.
08:44I think it's beneficial to the alliance.
08:46The stronger our partners in NATO are, the more capable our partners in NATO are, the stronger NATO is.
08:52And everybody should be in favor of that.
08:54And, sorry, just to follow up, so will you try and get the official target as 5 percent rather than 2 percent?
09:00And will the U.S. commit to 5 percent?
09:02Sure, we're heading there now.
09:03We're going to have to spend more on national security because we have a global footprint.
09:06And that's the point that I think has been made and missed in a lot of places.
09:10The United States has Indo-Pacific alliance obligations as well that we've made.
09:15We are currently involved in opening up the Red Sea so that global shipping for everyone, including our European partners, can become possible again.
09:22We're engaged in counter-drug and counter-gang interdictions in the Western Hemisphere.
09:26There's obviously all sorts of issues going on in different parts of the world, including we're concerned about a resurgence of terrorist cells, whether it's in Africa or in the Middle East.
09:36So the U.S. has these global obligations, and we have China that's undergoing the largest, most expansive peacetime military expansion in history.
09:46So we need to confront all of these things, and we're engaged in all of those things.
09:49So we're going to have to increase the spending in our country.
09:52I think our commitment to NATO isn't just 3-and-something percent spending of GDP.
09:57It's sustained over an extraordinary period of time, and that continues.
10:01So, look, I think our partners know they need to do more.
10:05They've all indicated they want to do more.
10:07They've begun to do more, and that trend needs to continue.
10:10Mr. Secretary, you mentioned that you met with Kirill Dmitriev as well.
10:13In order to stop them from dragging their feet and dragging this on, is there anything that you said, perhaps not threats,
10:19but is there anything that you said you wanted to see concretely from the Russian side in order to—
10:24Yes, peace. We want to see peace.
10:26But specifics in terms of getting to this ceasefire first and then the negotiations later?
10:29Yeah, I mean, peace means you stop shooting at each other.
10:31I mean, it's as simplistic as that.
10:33Look, there's all kinds of conditions for a final peace, and you have to work with both sides.
10:36And I've said from the beginning, the only way a war ends is in a negotiated settlement.
10:40If it's not an unconditional surrender, then it is both sides make concessions.
10:44We're not going to prejudge what those concessions are,
10:46because those concessions will depend on what Ukraine will accept and Russia will accept.
10:50But we have to make concrete steps towards peace.
10:52What we're not interested in, and I'm not accusing them of this,
10:55I'm just telling you what we're not interested in is negotiations about negotiations,
10:59that we're not going to continue this forever.
11:01So none of it was threatening. I think it was more an explanation of this is our timeline,
11:05and at some point it will be clear whether you want peace or you don't want peace.
11:08And that time is coming. It's pretty short.
11:10At the same time, as we now have seen, members of Congress have begun to file bills to increase sanctions.
11:16So there is going to be growing pressure from Capitol Hill to impose sanctions
11:20that we're not going to be able to stop if, in fact, we're not making progress towards peace.
11:24All these factors have been explained in the nicest way possible.
11:27Hopefully he'll take that message back to Moscow,
11:30and it will make clear that we need to begin to see real progress,
11:32or we'll have to conclude that they're not interested in peace.
11:34But let's hope they are, because I think it would be better for everyone.
11:36Are more talks planned?
11:38Well, we need to hear an answer to this.
11:40I mean, your own talks are only—we're going to have talks as long as talks are about something.
11:44It can't be talks about talks.
11:46At the end, you know, I think initially it was important to talk
11:50because we hadn't talked to them in a long time,
11:52but now we've reached the stage where we need to make progress.
11:55And if we're not making progress towards peace,
11:57then we have a set of factors that we have to take into account.
12:00But hopefully we are going to make progress towards peace.
12:02I remain optimistic that we can.
12:04It'll be hard, it'll be difficult, but I'm optimistic that it can be.
12:07Mr. Secretary, the Myanmar earthquake—
12:09I mean, normally in these kind of events you would have up to 200 Americans
12:13with sniffer dogs, special equipment, experts in their field, saving lives on the ground.
12:18This has not happened because of the dismantling of U.S.—
12:22Well, that and the fact that it's run by a military junta that doesn't like us.
12:25So it's hard for us to move around in our country.
12:27Related to the United States, these events are always nonpolitical.
12:30They went into Syria, for example, in the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
12:33So they can't—
12:34Well, we're not the government of the world.
12:36We'll provide humanitarian assistance just like everybody else does,
12:39and we will do it the best we can.
12:41But we also have other needs we have to balance that against.
12:43We're not walking away from humanitarian assistance.
12:45But again, I go back, there's a lot of other rich countries in the world.
12:48They should all be pitching in.
12:49We're going to do our part.
12:50We already have people there.
12:51We'll have more people there.
12:52We'll help as much as we can.
12:53It's not the easiest place to work.
12:55They have a military junta that doesn't like us,
12:57doesn't necessarily allow us to operate in that country the way we wanted to.
13:00That would have impeded our response no matter what.
13:02That said, we are willing to continue to help in the humanitarian crisis.
13:06Other countries need to do so as well.
13:07China's a very rich country.
13:09India's a rich country.
13:10There are a lot of other countries in the world, and everyone should pitch in.
13:13I don't think it's fair to assume that the United States needs to continue to share the burden,
13:1660%, 70% of humanitarian aid around the world.
13:19We will be in the business of humanitarian aid,
13:21but we have other priorities as well that are national interest priorities of the United States,
13:25and we're going to align all those to be properly balanced.
13:28It's just a matter of soft power.
13:29I mean, all of the experts in this for several reasons.
13:32It's not because of the politics of Myanmar, but it's because of the dismantling in the USA,
13:36and you simply couldn't deploy.
13:38Yeah, I don't listen to these so-called experts.
13:40These are not real experts.
13:41These are so-called experts.
13:42These are people that are part of that NGO industrial complex.
13:47No, no, these are people that make millions and hundreds of millions of dollars
13:50in these NGOs all over the world that stand up and they get flooded with U.S. taxpayer money,
13:54and then we have to spend $100 million to get $10 million to people.
13:58We're not doing that anymore.
14:00We have stopped.
14:01We are no longer going to spend $100 million to get $10 million to recipients.
14:06We're not going to fund these global NGOs all over the world that are living off of this.
14:10We're not doing it.
14:11We are prepared to help and work with governments
14:13and appropriate NGOs on the ground that are delivering assistance.
14:16We will be there, and we will be helpful.
14:18There are a lot of other rich countries.
14:19They should also pitch in and help, and some of them are and some of them are not.
14:22But we are going to do our part.
14:24We're going to continue to do our part,
14:25but it's going to be balanced with all of the other interests we have as a country.
14:29We are not a nation.
14:30We are the richest country in the world, but our resources are not unlimited.
14:34They are not unlimited, and we have a massive national debt,
14:37and we have many other priorities as well, and it's time to recalibrate all of that.
14:40So we'll be there.
14:41We'll be helpful as much as we can.
14:43We've got other things we have to take care of as well,
14:45but we care deeply about what's happened there.
14:47Mr. Secretary, the Middle East was part of your discussion here in NATO,
14:53especially that you find support from members toward your policy of airstrikes in Houthis
15:00and your maximum pressure policy toward Iran.
15:04Yeah, I mean, on the Houthis, everybody wants to get their ships through the Red Sea.
15:07We're the only ones doing anything about it,
15:09but everyone wants to get their ships through there.
15:12As I said, we've done the world a great favor by taking on this band of criminals
15:16who have, unfortunately, sophisticated weaponry that they can use to attack 150, 160 merchant vessels.
15:23174 times they've attacked the United States Navy.
15:26So I think the world should be grateful to the United States for being involved in this and doing this.
15:31Everyone thanks us for it.
15:33I understand these nations have limited capabilities.
15:35Despite being very rich countries, nobody else can project power there and do this.
15:39But that said, we think that mission is going to bear fruit, and it's necessary.
15:44We can't have a band of criminals controlling that.
15:46In the case of Iran, I don't know of any country in the world that's excited about Iran ever having a nuclear weapons capability.
15:52Some are more forceful about it than others.
15:55We've had talks about that.
15:56As you know, the president would like to figure out what's going to happen there,
15:59but he's also made it clear that there's not going to be a nuclear-armed Iran.
16:02That's not going to happen under his watch.
16:04Mr. Secretary, what's your message to foreign citizens who may be afraid to come to the United States
16:10because they're concerned about potentially being detained over some minor administrative error
16:16because they might have something on their phone, like criticism of the president or the Israel-Gaza conflict,
16:21and they don't want to come into the United States now?
16:24First of all, people that have their phones looked at and so forth,
16:27and you'll have to all refer you to CBP to go through their processes,
16:31but generally it's people that have been flagged coming in for a reason.
16:34I would say that if you're not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest
16:37or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is
16:40or to tell us about, you know, stir up conflict on our campuses
16:43and create riots in our street and vandalize our universities,
16:47then you have nothing to worry about.
16:48But thousands and thousands and thousands of people come into the U.S. every single day to conduct business,
16:53to travel, to do all sorts of visits, relatives.
16:56It happens every day.
16:57It's a very commonplace, and nobody has a problem.
16:59I mean, if you're coming here to create problems, you're probably going to have a problem,
17:02and I think that's a good thing.
17:03If you're coming here to create problems, not here in the United States,
17:06you're probably going to have a problem.
17:07Yeah.
17:08But we're not going to continue to be stupid enough to let people into our country
17:11who are coming here to tear things up.
17:13Not going to happen.
17:14Mr. Secretary, have the Russians done anything concrete to make you encouraged
17:18that they are truly interested in peace?
17:20And when you talk about timeline, I know you're not going to give a specific timeline,
17:22but are you talking weeks?
17:24Are you talking months?
17:26I think we're talking weeks probably, yeah.
17:28I mean, you know, there's a lot that has to happen here in the next few weeks
17:31in order for this to be real.
17:34Not concrete.
17:35They've agreed to certain things.
17:37I mean, I think their things are not striking now that they were before.
17:40Obviously both sides claim that the ceasefire has been violated.
17:42It's typical of ceasefires like this.
17:44But that said, not concrete in terms of are we closer to peace.
17:48We're closer to peace simply because we're talking to both sides,
17:50but we're not closer to peace because we have a deal on our hands to end this conflict.
17:54But we're going to know soon enough.
17:56That's my point.
17:57I make everybody, you know, people come, oh, well, Putin, you can't trust him.
17:59It's not about trusting Putin.
18:01It's not about trusting anybody.
18:02This is about actions.
18:03If you're interested in peace, you stop fighting,
18:06and you lay out the conditions by which you're willing to end a war,
18:09and they have to be reasonable conditions, right, not crazy stuff.
18:12If you're interested in peace, that's what you do.
18:14If you're not interested in peace, then you sort of drag it out
18:17and you come up with excuses and you pull it.
18:19We know that, and we're not going to get pulled into that.
18:21But let's hope it doesn't come to that.
18:23Let's be optimistic that that's not the direction we're going.
18:28We're prepared if it is, but let's hope that we're not heading in the direction of
18:31this is just a delay tactic.
18:32All right.
18:33One more, and then we wrap up.
18:34Don't you guys want to go home?
18:35No one's at home.
18:36Secretary, your allies here and also Ukraine,
18:38they believe that Russia is actually preparing to launch another campaign,
18:42a military campaign, as soon as the winter season ends.
18:45Do you have any reason to doubt that?
18:48That they're going to do what?
18:49I'm sorry?
18:50The Russians are preparing to start another military campaign.
18:53Well, then, well, no, they're not interested in peace.
18:55And at this very moment, they're targeting energy sites.
18:57Can I get your reaction to that?
18:59Targeting what?
19:00Energy sites in Ukraine.
19:01Well, again, I get that that means they're violating the ceasefire.
19:05That's not a good sign.
19:06But I think that would tell you this, that ultimately this is a war.
19:09Right now, things are going to be blowing up in Ukraine and inside of Russia
19:12because there's still a war going on.
19:13That's what we're trying to end.
19:15If we have a true ceasefire, which is what we want, a complete ceasefire,
19:18nothing should be blowing up.
19:20But the Russians didn't agree to that.
19:22They wanted a partial.
19:23And then, obviously, when you get into these partials,
19:25that's one of the reasons why we didn't push for a partial.
19:27We'll take it because it's better than nothing.
19:29But one of the reasons why we didn't push for a partial,
19:32because there's always disputes about what are you hitting and what you're not hitting.
19:36But in the end, this is still a war, and we want it to stop.
19:40The fact that religious sites are being hit or energy sites are being hit
19:43or civilian sites are being hit, that's why war is a bad thing,
19:46and that's why the president wants to end it.
19:48As far as them conducting another campaign, well, then that will be a very clear sign.
19:52If all of a sudden we wake up tomorrow and the Russians are launching a massive offensive,
19:56then I think that's a pretty clear sign they're not interested in peace.
19:59That hasn't happened yet. Let's hope it doesn't happen.
20:02We want to know whether they want to do peace or not.
20:04And if they do, then there's a way there, and we're willing to help.
20:07If they're not, then it's good to know early so we can adjust our policies accordingly.
20:11All right. Thank you, guys.