Secretary of State Marco Rubio described himself as “a strong supporter of NATO” amid tensions between President Trump and the members of the alliance.
“I’ve been a strong supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate and even now,” Rubio told reporters in Italy after he met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday.
But, the secretary added, the point of being in NATO is for allies to help “in case of contingencies,” which did not happen when the US attacked Iran.
“We had a contingency. And some countries in Europe – some countries in Europe like Spain, as an example – denied us the use of those bases for a very important contingency, that in some ways the denial of those bases actually impeded the mission,” he said.
Trump has described the bloc as a “paper tiger” and threatened to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain. Rubio said he had no announcements to make about American forces, noting it was the president’s decision.