European leaders have pledged to shoulder more of the burden of shared Nato defences to counter a hostile Russia
Rubio is now speaking, drawing on the history of the Munich Security Conference, dating back to 1963.
“We gather here today as members of a historic alliance, an alliance that saved and changed the world. When this conference began in 1963 it was in a nation, actually, it was on a continent that was divided against itself. The line between communism and freedom ran through the heart of Germany,” he says.
He says that “at the time of that first gathering, Soviet communism was on the march,” and “thosuands of years of western civilisation hung in the balance.”
“At that time, victory was far from certain, but we were driven by a common purpose. We were unified not just by what we were fighting against, we were unified by what we were fighting for,” he says.
