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Friday April 04, 2025
(BRUSSELS) -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting NATO's headquarters in Brussels for a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers, putting him on the front lines of the Trump administration's push against traditional American allies in Europe.
European leaders were already bracing for a contentious gathering. President Donald Trump's decision to pull back aid from Ukraine amid its efforts to fight off Russia's invasion marked a dramatic break with other allies, while his decision to engage Moscow in direct, one-on-one negotiations has left the continent's diplomats back on their heels.
But on Wednesday, shortly before Rubio was set to depart for Belgium, Trump unveiled sweeping new "reciprocal" tariffs -- including a 20% tax on imports from the European Union.
So far, Rubio has declined to address the tariff issue head on, but his Canadian counterpart said the global economic shock made it difficult to focus on the meeting's pressing agenda.
"Clearly we're passing that message to our American counterparts that it's difficult to have these [NATO] conversations in the context of a trade war," Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in an interview with CNN.
Rubio has also tried to skirt another topic of contention: Trump's stated desire to "get" Greenland for the United States by any means necessary.
Rubio met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial but didn't respond to reporters' questions asking what he would say about Greenland during the session. The State Department also made no mention of the Danish autonomous territory in its readout of the engagement.
"Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the strong relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said. "They discussed shared priorities including increasing NATO defense spending and burden sharing and addressing the threats to the alliance, including those posed by Russia and China."
Rasmussen later said his meeting with Rubio was "good" but that while Greenland was not on the agenda "for many reasons," he had still taken the opportunity "to very strongly object to claims and presidential statements of a vision of acquiring Greenland."
It has amounted to a situation in which it's not within the limits of international law," he said, calling it "an attack on Danish sovereignty."
"We have seen these statements from the president, and we can't accept that," Rasmussen added. "And I made it very, very clear."
Rubio and Rasmussen's meeting comes just days after Vice President J.D. Vance visited Greenland alongside his wife, Usha Vance, and national security adviser Mike Waltz.
The second lady was originally scheduled to headline the trip and spend several days on the world's largest island, taking in Greenlandic cultural sites, but the visit sparked backlash from Greenland's interim government and Danish leaders who noted an invitation was never extended.
In the aftermath, the White House added the vice president to the traveling delegation and whittled down the itinerary, shortening the trip to a one-day stop at a remote American military base in northwestern Greenland.
Rubio has taken a more measured approach in his comments about Greenland than the president, but he still emphasized what he said are the pressing U.S. national security concerns surrounding control of the island.
"This is not a joke," Rubio said in January. "This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest, and it needs to be solved."
At NATO Headquarters on Thursday, Rubio tried to reassure allies that despite the president's mixed signals, the Trump administration still views the alliance as central to U.S. security.
"President Trump's made clear he supports NATO. We're going to remain in NATO," he said.
Still, Rubio pushed the administration's message that allies need to increase their defense spending -- calling on all of the alliance's members to commit to putting up to 5% of their annual GDP toward it, a sharp uptick from the previous 2% benchmark.
"We do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway, a realistic pathway," he said. "That includes the United States that will have to increase its percentage."
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(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump's sweeping new set of tariffs impact friend and foe alike, but also on the list are uninhabited islands while some glaring omissions include Russia and Iran.
Trump on Wednesday unveiled "kind reciprocal" tariff rates on certain nations that the administration's deemed the worst offenders in trade with the U.S., in addition to a minimum 10% baseline tariff on all U.S. trading partners.
"If they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America because there is no tariff if you build your plant, your product in America," Trump said as he announced the policy at the White House.
"Likewise, to all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs, I say terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don't manipulate your currencies," Trump added.
At the top of the list is China, which will be hit with a whopping 54% tariff rate once the additional levies are put into effect. High levies are also being placed on the European Union, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India and more.
Israel is also a target of "reciprocal" tariffs, despite moving ahead of Trump's announcement to cancel all remaining tariffs on American imports (which there were very few of thanks to the Israel-United Staes Free Trade agreement that has been in place since the 1980s).
Israel, though, still got hit with a 17% rate. The Israeli government is already pushing back on the Trump administration's calculation that Israel somehow charged a 33% tariff to the U.S., with one official calling it "puzzling."
What else is on Trump's list
British Indian Ocean Territory -- The only inhabitants of the United Kingdom territory located in the Indian Ocean are American and British military personnel and contractors stationed at a joint defense facility.
Heard and McDonald Islands -- Australian external territory of mostly barren Antarctic islands; uninhabited with no imports or exports.
Norfolk Island -- This is another Australian external territory, but for some reason the Trump administration has set the reciprocal tariff rate at 29%. That is far above the 10% for Australia and other external territories. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already expressed confusion over the area's inclusion, as there is very little trade between the U.S. and the tiny island, which has a population around 2,000.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen -- These are remote territories of Norway in the Arctic Ocean. The new tariff rate is just 5% less than it is for greater Norway, though an Mayen also has no permanent population.
Réunion -- The island is considered to be an overseas department and region of France, has similar status to its counterparts in metropolitan France and doesn't have its own bilateral trade agreements. It is generally treated by the U.S. as a part of France but the administration is setting the tariff rate for the island at 37% instead of the European Unions's 20 % rate.
What is notably not included on Trump's list
Russia -- Moscow was omitted from the list and the White House has been claiming this is because sanctions preclude any meaningful trade. This is false. Trade has fallen dramatically between the U.S. and Russia since the onset of the war in Ukraine but last year the U.S. imported around $3 billion in goods from Russia (many times the dollar amount between the U.S. and many of the small island territories that did make the list).
Belarus, Cuba and North Korea -- The White House made the same argument as it did for Russia for why they are not on the list, but in these countries' cases, there is much less trade with the U.S. Although it is still on par or surpasses trade with some of the island territories.
Iran -- There's not a whole lot of trade between the U.S. and Iran because of the many sanctions against the country, but amid the Trump administration's effort to impose "maximum pressure" against the regime, it's notable that Tehran is only getting hit with the baseline 10% tariff.
ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
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