WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday that ending Russia’s war in Ukraine would become a cornerstone of US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, as part of the administration’s broader aim to prioritise peace and stability on the global stage.
Former US Senator Rubio, a China hawk and staunch backer of Israel, was the first of Trump’s cabinet nominees to be sworn into office on Tuesday, after the US Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination on Monday evening. Additional votes on other Trump nominees were expected this week.
During his confirmation hearing last week, the new top US diplomat said both Moscow and Kyiv would have to give concessions to end the war and suggested Ukraine would have to give up its goal of regaining all the territory Russia has taken in the last decade.
Rubio echoed those comments to NBC‘s “Today” show on Tuesday ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
“It’s going to be the official policy of the United States that the war has to end and we’re going to do everything possible to bring that about,” he said.
Former President Joe Biden, who sent billions of dollars of US weapons to Ukraine after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, insisted it was up to Ukraine to decide if and when to enter peace talks with Russia.
Trump, while campaigning for president, said he would quickly end the war, without saying how he would do so.
Rubio said it would be “complicated … because every side’s going to have to give something.”
“The only way conflicts like this end is … not in public pronouncements,” Rubio said. “They end in hard, vibrant diplomacy that the US seeks to engage in, in the hopes of bringing an end to this conflict that’s sustainable, in a way that assures the security of Ukraine and our partners in the region, but that stops the killing and the dying and the destruction that we’ve been seeing for quite a while now.”
Rubio, 53 and a Republican, was a long-time member of the Senate foreign relations and intelligence committees. The son of immigrants from Cuba, he has also pushed for tough measures against the Communist-ruled island and its allies, especially the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking at the White House after he was sworn in, Rubio promised he would carry out Trump’s foreign policy of “furthering the national interest of this country.”
He added that another foreign policy goal under Trump will be “the promotion of peace. Of course, peace through strength, peace and always without abandoning our values.”
