Top diplomat Marco Rubio has laid out foreign policy priorities under US President Donald Trump, saying the administration is focused on advancing Washington’s interests around the world.
The US Secretary of State reiterated President Trump’s tough stance on Venezuela and defended cuts to foreign aid programs during a two-hour briefing with reporters on Friday.
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Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, echoed Trump’s own position and expressed anger at “mass immigration” to the United States.
In addition to his diplomatic duties, Mr. Rubio also served as White House national security adviser and as director of the now-defunct United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Here are five key takeaways from the Secretary of State’s extensive media briefing.
Maduro can’t be trusted
Mr. Rubio suggested that further talks with Venezuela would be futile because President Nicolas Maduro cannot be trusted to fulfill his commitments.
Rubio said of Maduro: “He has never honored the contracts he has made in the past, so it is difficult to consider signing him in the future.”
The top U.S. diplomat continued to accuse President Maduro of using the Venezuelan government to lead a campaign of drug trafficking and “terrorism.”
President Trump himself has made similar claims, accusing the Venezuelan president of masterminding the flow of drugs and criminals into the United States.
He also portrays Maduro as the leader of a cartel that controls groups such as the Venezuelan gang Torren de Aragua. However, these claims have been denied by US intelligence agencies, which have found no evidence that President Maduro controls the gang.
Rubio said Friday that the United States is working with governments in the Western Hemisphere to ensure stability in the Caribbean region. But Venezuela is an outlier, he stressed.
“There is one place that we will not cooperate with, and that is the illegal regime in Venezuela. Not only are they not cooperating with us, they are openly collaborating with terrorist and criminal elements.”
“For example, they have invited Hezbollah and Iran to operate within their territory.”
Trump’s allies have accused Maduro of forging ties with Hezbollah, but the United States has presented no evidence that the Lebanese group, weakened by last year’s war with Israel, is active in the South American country.
Rubio’s comments come as the United States continues to build up its troops and military assets around Venezuela, and amid mounting speculation about plans to overthrow President Maduro by force.
President Trump also announced an oil blockade of Caracas as he and his allies continue to falsely claim that Venezuelan oil belongs to the United States.
Rubio was asked on Friday how he plans to break with Trump’s self-image as a peace negotiator as military threats against Venezuela intensify.
“We reserve and have the right to use every element of our national power to protect America’s national interests,” Rubio said. “And no one disputes this. Every country in the world has the same choice. We just have more power than some.”
Ukraine: ‘This is not our war’
The ongoing war in Ukraine, which has escalated since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, was also a key topic at Friday’s press conference.
Rubio explained that the Trump administration is trying to determine what Russia and Ukraine are willing to accept toward a peace agreement, but stressed that the conflict is not a top priority for the United States.
“This is not our war. It’s a war on another continent,” he said.
But Rubio insisted that only the United States could achieve a peace deal in Ukraine.
“What we’re trying to figure out here is what can Ukraine live with, what can Russia live with? It’s about identifying the positions on both sides and seeing if we can bring both sides closer to some sort of agreement,” Rubio said.
“If you ask [for] “I would argue that when you prioritize, what’s in our hemisphere is more important to our national interests than what’s on other continents,” he said. “But that doesn’t make Ukraine and Russia any less important. We value that. That’s why we’re involved in it.”
While campaigning for re-election in 2024, Trump promised to end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking back the presidency.
Although he has since had to walk back those comments, Republican leaders have maintained an active role in peace negotiations and hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Alaska conference in August.
President Trump has been lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded in recognition of his contributions to ending world conflicts.
US presses for completion of Phase 1 in Gaza
Rubio also stressed Friday that Washington is pushing for the completion of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire so that the second phase can begin.
The three elements Rubio emphasized were the creation of a Palestinian technical committee to help govern Gaza, the establishment of a foreign-led “peace commission,” and the deployment of an international police force to the area.
“This is something we’re targeting right away. It’s something we’re laser-focused on right now,” he said.
“No one disputes that the current situation is sustainable or desirable in the long term, which is why we have a sense of urgency to fully complete the first phase.”
“Once we establish that, we have great confidence that we will have donors for all the humanitarian assistance in the recovery effort and long-term phase two and phase three construction.”
The United States is currently hosting talks with officials from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye to discuss the next steps.
Since the October ceasefire brokered by President Trump, Israel has killed 395 people in the Gaza Strip, including an average of two children a day. On Friday, Israeli forces targeted a wedding gathering, leaving at least six people dead and many injured.
Israel also refused to accept aid in sufficient quantities into its territory and blocked access to temporary housing, despite the fact that tents of displaced people flooded during the harsh winter weather.
Al Jazeera asked Rubio about Israel’s violations, but the US secretary of state did not address the premise of the question. Instead, he stressed that efforts are underway to ensure peace in Gaza.
“This is the hard work of diplomacy and peace negotiation. Peace negotiation is not just signing a piece of paper, it’s actually following through on it,” he said. “And in most cases, compliance requires ongoing daily follow-up and nurturing.”
cooperation with china
As a senator, Rubio was a China hawk. But on Friday, he took a softer tone when speaking about relations with China, stressing the need for cooperation despite bilateral tensions.
“I think I’ve been nice to China,” Rubio said jokingly. He added that the US has made “good progress” with China.
“It means that if there is a global challenge that China and the United States can work together to address, we can solve it,” he told reporters. “And there will be some tensions. We recognize that our job is to balance the two. I think we both understand that.”
The United States and China reached a one-year deal in November to freeze tariffs and resolve other issues after a trade war escalated early in the Trump administration’s second term.
For nearly a decade, U.S. officials have said global competition with Beijing is their most pressing foreign policy issue.
But in recent months, President Trump has turned his attention to the Americas and appears to be deprioritizing the conflict with China.
NATO commitment
Rubio on Friday reasserted the United States’ commitment to the NATO military alliance, even as the Trump administration has slammed Europe and its leaders over immigration policy and European Union regulations.
He suggested that NATO’s common defense, enshrined in Article 5 of the Alliance Treaty, would deter Russian military action beyond Ukraine.
“That’s why we remain in NATO,” he said. “That’s why we’re in this alliance, and that’s why Article 5 of the NATO alliance is important.”
Rubio added that the only demand the United States has on its NATO allies is to increase military spending.
President Trump is seeking to raise the minimum defense spending for allied nations to 5% of each country’s gross domestic product (GDP), but some countries, including Spain, are seeking greater flexibility in their military budgets.
European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also expressed concern about President Trump’s commitment to the military alliance, citing his past vague statements regarding Article V commitments. But Rubio sought to dispel those concerns.
“We are committed to our alliance, and our commitment is not just rhetoric,” Rubio said. “Our commitment is action in troops deployed, resources spent, and capabilities in collaboration.”
