In an interview with Catherine Herridge Reports released Feb. 20, Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly defended the role of diplomacy and emphasized the Trump Administration’s goal of reestablishing relations with Russia. After saying that the Biden Administration had nearly cut all diplomatic relations with Russia, he said: “[E]ven at the height of the Cold War, even in the worst days of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had communication. And the reason why from a—if you want to be mature and grown-ups about it, I’m not a fan of most of what Vladimir Putin has done, and that’s largely irrelevant when it comes to statecraft, because we ultimately have to be able to talk to a nation that has, in some cases, the largest tactical nuclear weapons stockpile in the world and the second largest, if not the largest, strategic nuclear weapons stockpile in the world. … [W]hether we like it or not, Russia is a power, a global power, and they’re involved and engaged in Syria; they’ve been involved and engaged in the Middle East; even in the Western Hemisphere, certainly in Europe. We have to have some communication with them.”
Later, Rubio came back to examples of areas of potential cooperation with Russia. “There are things we could cooperate on geopolitically, potentially. I mean, there are items of the world where I think we have a common interest. I’m not sure the Russians are fans of the Iranian regime having nuclear weapons, as an example, and so forth,” Rubio said.
