Rubio Courted by Fico and Orbán. British and German Generals Call to Rearm

Hitting on a conciliatory tone, Marco Rubio gathered applause from European allies in the main conference room of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) and then headed to meet leaders in Slovakia and Hungary – his first trip to those countries.

In Bratislava, PM Robert Fico courted the US guest with a public promise to buy more F-16s, and to push for more US-CEE energy cooperation – namely purchases of US LNG and signing nuclear contracts when Slovakia takes over the V4 presidency in July. In Budapest, Rubio will also press PM Viktor Orbán regarding his Russian energy dependency. But as a founding member of Trump’s Board of Peace initiative Orbán will upbeat his ‘peace vs war’ campaign message. To boost his re-election chances Orbán will likely beg for Trump’s visit in March. Can Rubio condition that on decoupling from Moscow?

Their talks come right in the middle of the EU process to introduce new energy sanctions on Russia. The 20th package should be adopted by the EU in the next eight days. But no one in Europe dreams of stopping the Russian army through a trade war alone. On the contrary, European generals (the UK chief of the defence staff and the German chief of defence) warn that Russia’s military buildup is a present danger, using the MSC to call for the rearmament of Europe as ‘a moral obligation’ in a joint op-ed for The Guardian and Welt. Only by working together and projecting strength, Britain, Germany, and the rest of Europe can preserve the peace – a message that Central Europeans will most likely favour if it indeed delivers.

Recovering after Munich

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