ATHENS (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to call for the nations of the West to return to their civilizational roots and restore the values that drove the rise of Europe and North America to global dominance for centuries.
In Athens to discuss deepening economic, energy and security cooperation with Greece, Rubio will deliver a speech later Wednesday near the ruins of the Acropolis, a widely recognizable symbol of the city's ancient civilization
associated with the creation of popular participatory government and the social contract.
The State Department, which is billing the speech as a major address on democracy and its future, says Rubio will “call upon Americans and Europeans alike to join together in a great renewal of the Western spirit — an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to Christendom to the founding of the American Republic.”
Rubio is seen by many as the gentle face of the Trump administration and has been frequently dispatched to clarify or otherwise address concerns about the president’s frequently undiplomatic statements.
In some quarters, however, Rubio’s Athens speech may be seen as a follow-on to the blistering address Vice President JD Vance gave at last year’s Munich Security Conference, in which he excoriated Europeans for allowing unchecked immigration and accused them of overreliance on America and inattention to their own security.
Vance and Rubio are the leading contenders to assume Trump’s mantle at the top of the Republican Party, which faces stiff challenges in next month’s congressional midterm elections.
Rubio intends to remind listeners of qualities he says were born in Greece and later defined the West, such as curiosity, courage, ambition and a restless spirit of exploration and discovery of the unknown.
“He will warn that too much of our civilization has forgotten these essential qualities, and urge our allies across the West to join the United States in rejecting decline, defending our shared heritage, and confronting a new era of great-power competition together,” the department said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused countries in Europe of backsliding on their traditional values and democratic principles by stifling the free speech of conservatives and falling short on commitments to international partners like the United States.
Many of those countries have rejected the complaints and accused the U.S. under Trump of being guilty of similar behavior and worse with its staunch anti-immigration stance that some believe is racist.
Ahead of his visit to Athens, about 1,500 people gathered to protest Rubio’s presence and the war in Iran, chanting “American killers!”
The demonstration was organized by a communist labor union and other left-wing groups and was held ahead of extensive road closures planned in Athens on Wednesday. Organizers said similar protests were held in at least 12 other Greek cities.
Rubio is on the second leg of a three-nation tour of NATO allies that has already taken him to Iceland and will end in Portugal on Thursday. The trip is aimed at reassuring U.S. partners that the Trump administration is committed to their success and security despite what has been an often brusque and sometimes rude approach to traditional friends that has stirred unease.
Rubio began emphasizing historical themes on Thursday, when he met Iceland's foreign minister at the site of the landmark 1986 summit between former President Ronald Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a meeting that many believe marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and was a catalyst for the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.
It remains unclear what impact Rubio's visits will have, although on Tuesday in Reykjavik, he sought to reassure Iceland that President Donald Trump’s administration has no designs on the island. Rather, he said the U.S. shares Iceland's deep concerns about Arctic security as tensions between the U.S. and Russia rise in the High North and elsewhere.
Iceland has been uneasy about Trump’s intentions toward it after he posted a map showing the colors of the U.S. flag sprawling across all of North America and extending to Iceland and Greenland. That wariness has persisted despite an agreement last month to increase the U.S. presence in the neighboring Danish territory of Greenland that appears to have ended Trump’s demands for the U.S. to take full control of the island.
But after Rubio’s talks in Reykjavik, those tensions appeared to be on the wane. Rubio said the United States would not do anything in Iceland without Iceland’s consent.
Before delivering his speech in Athens, Rubio will likely be asked about allegations of misconduct leveled at U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.
The top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Gregory Meeks, have initiated probes into claims reported last month by the Wall Street Journal that Guilfoyle acted improperly while serving as the top U.S. envoy to Greece.
The Journal reported that Guilfoyle told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company, and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was once engaged to Trump’s son Donald Jr., has denied any wrongdoing, and Rubio has defended her before.
Guilfoyle, Rubio said after the Journal story appeared, “has been an incredible advocate for the president’s agenda in Greece and across Europe.” He said he and Trump greatly value the ambassador’s “pivotal work and leadership,” notably on energy issues.
The Trump administration sees Greece as key to advancing the promotion and export of U.S.-produced liquefied natural gas to Southeastern and Central Europe.
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Associated Press writer Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed to this report.
