Marco Rubio Declares 'Without the U.S., There is no NATO'

In an interview with ,Al Jazeera, Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the current conflict between the U.S. and Iran and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) refusal to participate in the war, declaring that "without the U.S., there is no NATO."

The U.S. State Department posted several video clips on Monday of Secretary Rubio’s interview via the social media platform, X.

In one video clip, Secretary Rubio commented that the United States’ relationship with NATO will have to be re-examined following the organization’s opposition to providing aid across the Middle East.

“I’ve been a big supporter of NATO. One of the reasons I’ve been a supporter of NATO is because I believe that these basing rights give us leverage and give us flexibility and operational capability all over the world,” Secretary Rubio commented. “But if NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked, but then denying us basing rights when we need them. That’s not a very good arrangement. That’s a hard one to stay engaged in and say that this is good for the United States. So all of them are going to have to be re-examined. All of it is going to have to be re-examined.”

The interview highlighted that some Europeans claim that the U.S. is not willing to team up with NATO, but Secretary Rubio argued that “if that’s what someone in Europe told you, that person is very disingenuous, because the United States has tens of thousands of troops stationed throughout that region."

"Billions of dollars of weaponry staged throughout Europe. All of it there to defend Europe. Not to defend America. To defend Europe from attack. All over,” Secretary added.

“Without the United States, there is no NATO,” Secretary Rubio asserted. “I mean, everybody recognizes that, including NATO.”