Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that President Trump is set to attend NATO’s meeting in July.
“The United States is still in the NATO alliance, and we’ll be there in Turkey to talk about all these topics. The president himself will be attending the next NATO meeting of heads of state, where all these points will be made clear,” Rubio said. “We’re still in NATO, but NATO needs significant changes, and the president has made that clear. He is disappointed in NATO.”
Discussing the U.S. relationship with NATO, Rubio explained to lawmakers, “The problem with NATO, as I want to point out, is those bases that we have in the region is one of the reasons I used to argue why NATO was so important. It allowed the U.S. to project power and have power in case of contingencies.”
“We had a contingency, and we had countries in NATO that said, ‘No, you can’t use our bases.’ Particularly Spain,” he continued. “Now, I want to be fair, there were other countries that have been extraordinarily cooperative and what they’ve helped us to do—some publicly and some privately.”
Rubio further explained that NATO countries have previously turned their backs on the nation when the U.S. was in need. “I think the president’s irritation with NATO is that in a time of conflict and crisis where the United States had a need, you had members of this alliance—who are constantly asking us to get to get involved in European matters, like Ukraine and things of this nature—who, in our time, were actually telling us, ‘No, your tankers can’t use our air base. No, you can’t use it to refuel. No, you can’t use it for logistical support,’” Rubio said.
Rubio’s comments echo those he made last month, when he told reporters, “I know why NATO is good for Europe, but why is NATO good for America? Because it gives us bases in the region that allow us to project power during a contingency in the Middle East or somewhere else.”
“So, when that is the key rationale for why you’re in NATO, and then you have countries like Spain denying us the use of these bases, well then why are you in NATO?”
