Athens — As the US wages a pricey battle with Iran and Europe struggles with the grinding battle in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood earlier than the Acropolis on Wednesday and reached again greater than two millennia to argue that the reply to the West’s present issues could be discovered, at the least partially, in historical Greece.
In a speech timed to the sundown from the Pnyx, the place Athenians gathered for his or her democratic meeting, Rubio solid historical Greece because the supply not solely of Western democracy and philosophy, however of what he described because the character that fueled the West’s rise.
“Right here, in Athens, we discovered the primary full realization of all of the important traits that will come to outline the West,” Rubio stated, citing “fierce individuality and relentless ambition,” and “a craving for discovery, for journey, threat and glory.”
He argued that these trendy Western societies had allowed these qualities to erode.
“The perfect of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, turn out to be a world of excellent security, a world devoid of threat or failure, the place neither the glory of victory, nor the disgrace of defeat,” Rubio stated. “We maintain probably the most distinctive issues amongst us hostage to the typical, the strange, the mediocre.”
His remarks have been delivered earlier than roughly 250 invited company, together with senior Greek authorities officers, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of the enterprise, instructional and cultural sectors, in line with a senior State Division official.
AP Photograph/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool 
The speech expanded on themes Rubio laid out on the Munich Safety Convention in February, when he warned that Europe confronted “civilizational erasure” and argued that the U.S. and Europe wanted to recuperate a shared Western id. Nonetheless, his conciliatory tone in Munich got here as a aid to European officers after Vice President JD Vance had used the identical stage a 12 months earlier to sharply rebuke the continent’s leaders.
In entrance of the Acropolis, Rubio traced the event of the West from historical Greece by means of Rome, European Christianity and ultimately the US, citing Alexander the Nice, Caesar, Charlemagne and Columbus alongside the best way. He portrayed America’s frontier enlargement, industrial growth and area program as later expressions of the identical drive.
Rubio stated the West now stands at a crossroads, “as a result of the following decade and the choices we make will write the story of the following century.”
“The course we take will decide whether or not the West maintains its place on the head of the world or resigns itself to a way forward for atrophy and servitude and decline. We’ll both select to behave now or lose the selection to behave in any respect,” he stated.
“Beneath President Trump, the US has made its alternative,” Rubio continued. “We select the unapologetic pursuit of nationwide energy, to take again management of our crucial provide chains, to reindustrialize our financial system, to rebuild our protection, to combat for dominance of the applied sciences and industries of the long run.”
The historical past Rubio introduced was arguably selective. He spoke comparatively little about democracy or political equality at a website carefully related to each, focusing as a substitute on competitors, nationwide loyalty and the willingness to take dangers. He argued that trendy societies too usually search “excellent security” and concern themselves extra with “the consolation of the worst than the potential of the most effective.”
“The boys who made the Parthenon, they constructed upwards. They held that the best and most noble aspiration in life was to surpass all others, to attempt to be the most effective in all issues,” he stated.
The extremely produced speech got here throughout a visit largely dedicated to extra rapid questions of American energy: the place U.S. forces can function, how NATO allies may help counter Russia and Iran, and the way American vitality can displace Russian provides in Europe.
Greece was the second cease on a three-country tour that started in Iceland and ends in Portugal on Thursday. In Iceland, amid rising U.S. consideration to Arctic safety, Rubio left open the potential of an elevated American navy presence, saying, “We would by no means do something with out cooperating with officers right here about what’s out there. I believe there’s a willingness to do extra collectively.”
In Athens, Rubio met Greek International Minister George Gerapetritis for the sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, targeted on protection, vitality and regional safety. At a information convention Wednesday, Rubio known as Greece a “sturdy and mannequin NATO ally,” whereas Gerapetritis stated Greece may present maritime help within the Strait of Hormuz if a viable peace course of is established.
Rubio was additionally requested by CBS Information whether or not he was assured U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle’s tenure had complied with State Division ethics guidelines, amid congressional scrutiny over allegations that Guilfoyle used her diplomatic place to learn non-public enterprise pursuits in Greece.
“This isn’t the format the place we’ll handle this,” Rubio stated. “Suffice it to say our embassy has been doing an ideal job. Our ambassador has been a robust ambassador.” Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing.
Rubio’s go to and Acropolis handle come at a fancy second for the Trump administration.
The U.S. is seven months into its battle with Iran and has but to safe an settlement to finish it. Vice President JD Vance stated this week that Iran would wish to make a “significant” discount in its uranium enrichment capability, elevating questions on whether or not the administration was backing away from its earlier insistence on zero enrichment.
Requested Wednesday by CBS Information to make clear the U.S. place, Rubio declined to say what stage of enrichment, if any, Washington may settle for.
“I do not perceive what the confusion is concerning the nuclear program. Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Easy, interval and finish of story,” he stated. “I am not going to enter, you recognize, into the small print about what could be acceptable or not.”
The battle has additionally helped push oil and gasoline costs sharply increased, including an financial and political price at house because the midterm elections strategy.
In his remarks earlier than the Acropolis, Rubio instantly raised Iran. After invoking the Spartans at Thermopylae and Achilles’ pursuit of glory at Troy, he contrasted Western concepts of sacrifice with what he known as a “cult of loss of life” amongst Iran’s “radical mullahs.”
“Our heroes could also be keen to die for his or her trigger, however they don’t worship loss of life,” he stated.
The speech additionally comes as Rubio’s personal political future attracts rising consideration. President Trump has publicly raised each Rubio and Vice President Vance as doable future standard-bearers for his motion.
Rubio didn’t overtly point out his personal ambitions Wednesday, however pointed to latest administration achievements, together with the Greenland deal he helped dealer final month.
“It’s a imaginative and prescient we noticed in motion,” Rubio stated, arguing the settlement would “reshape the Arctic and bolster the safety of all of NATO.”
“We wish to win collectively,” he stated. “We should win collectively.”
Rubio later headed to Portugal for the final leg of a four-day European journey.