In Athens to discuss deepening economic, energy and security cooperation with Greece, Rubio will deliver a speech later Wednesday overlooking the ruins of the Acropolis, a widely reconizable symbol of the city's ancient civilization associated with the creation of popular participatory government and the social contract.
Rubio intends to remind listeners of qualities he says were born in Greece and later defined the West, such as curiosity, courage, ambition and a restless spirit of exploration and discovery of the unknown.
“It has become fashionable today to believe that enlightened foreign policy means prioritizing the ‘global community’ over one’s own people. Here, too, we have much more to learn from the men of Ancient Greece. They knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation, nor in fighting to defend its interests above all else,” Rubio plans to say in the speech, excerpts of which were distributed by the State Department.
“Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads," he will say, according to the excerpts. "The next decade will write the story of the next century. The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude, and decline. We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all.”
In some quarters, however, Rubio’s Athens speech may be seen as a follow-on to the blistering address Vice President JD Vance gave at last year’s Munich Security Conference, in which he excoriated Europeans for allowing unchecked immigration and accused them of overreliance on America and inattention to their own security.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused countries in Europe of backsliding on their traditional values and democratic principles by stifling the free speech of conservatives and falling short on commitments to international partners like the United States.
