Washington – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading back to Europe on Wednesday to meet with his NATO counterparts for the first time, with the focus on Ukraine and other key topics, and to get the transatlantic relationship off on the right foot, Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent, who will be covering the trip, reports.
Rubio will attend the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting to discuss security priorities for the Alliance, including increased defense investment and securing a lasting peace in Ukraine, the State Department said Monday.
“Secretary Rubio will also discuss the shared threat of China to the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Alliances at a NATO session with representatives of the Indo-Pacific Partners,” department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Rubio’s April 2-4 trip is yet another illustration of a foreign policy reset under President Donald Trump that stresses America’s interest first, which offers a marked departure from previous Democratic and Republican presidential administrations.
However, many Ukraine watchers in Washington, including John Herbst, former ambassador to Kyiv during George W. Bush’s administration, believe that America First-driven foreign policy does not in fact exclude deterring Russia from engaging in conflict with Ukraine.
“I think that Rubio understands America’s interest in making sure Putin cannot subjugate Ukraine, which is Putin’s objective, and that bolstering Ukraine’s defense industry is an important tool for making sure Putin does not win,” Herbst, currently senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told Kyiv Post.
He went on to add that Europeans have been proactive over the last few months in looking for ways to bolster Ukraine’s defense industries, including the deployment of peace enforcement forces, an idea initially proposed by Trump before he was inaugurated. “Rubio wants to make clear that the United States supports that,” he said.
While there was initially a certain amount of uncertainty in European minds about Washington’s true intention, both in Ukraine and with NATO, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s February trip to Brussels and Vice-President JD Vance’s infamous speech at the Munich Security Conference, things got a bit cleared up during British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House, Herbst noted.
In the meantime, he added, there’s been a certain credulity on the part of the Trump team lately, reflected in the vacuum of statements made by the White House special envoy Steve Witkoff who, as Herbst put it, “seems to not understand that Putin is delaying an actual ceasefire and avoiding any penalty for it, despite some comments Trump made last week about Putin stalling.”
Trump over the weekend expressed increased frustration with Vladimir Putin, whose shifting demands in negotiations with Ukraine have drawn out ceasefire talks.
The State Department’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, explained Monday that it was Moscow’s idea about a temporary administration in Ukraine that “was not appreciated” by Trump.
“Ukraine is – well, I don’t think I need to remind everyone, but it’s a good reminder – is a constitutional democracy. Governance in Ukraine is determined by its constitution and the Ukrainian people,” Bruce told a daily briefing when responding to Kyiv Post’s questions.
She went on to conclude that there is “one north star for everyone involved in this [peace process], and it is the ceasefire and stopping the carnage”
“President Trump has made clear that Russia and Ukraine need to move to a full ceasefire now. None of that has changed,” she said.