BERLIN/MUNICH, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned transatlantic ties faced a “defining moment” in a rapidly changing world but struck a warmer tone ahead of the Munich Security Conference on Friday after a year of unprecedented upheaval.
At the same gathering of top security officials last year, Vice President JD Vance had attacked European allies, triggering a series of confrontations, with the U.S. seemingly set on dismantling much of the international order it helped to build.
In response, Washington’s partners have been pushing to chart a more independent course while preserving the basis of the alliance, as they face myriad threats from Russia’s war in Ukraine to massive ructions in global trade.
“I think it’s at a defining moment ... the world is changing very fast right in front of us,” Rubio said before departing for Munich.
“The Old World is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be.”
