Secretary Rubio: US Wants All Countries to Act in Their National Interests

Bratislava, 15 February (TASR) - The United States doesn't want Europe to become its vassal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in Bratislava on Sunday. "We want to be your partner. We want to work with Europe. We want to work with our allies," said Rubio, noting that the US expects all countries to act in their national interests. According to Rubio, the United States is looking forward to cooperating with the Visegrad Four (V4) countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), whose presidency will be taken over by Slovakia on 1 July this year. Rubio emphasised that Slovakia's views and position on the war in Ukraine are "very important" to the US, for example, given the geographical proximity of the two countries. With regard to Iran, the US secretary of state said that Washington is currently focusing on negotiations and will then decide what steps to take. The United States and Iran are once again holding talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, which were suspended after the 12-day Israeli-Iranian war last June. Despite the negotiations, US President Donald Trump began strengthening the US military presence in the Persian Gulf region. Switzerland announced on Saturday (14 February) that Oman will host talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva next week, with Washington pressing Tehran to reach an agreement on limiting its nuclear programme. According to Rubio, many countries didn't like what the US did in Venezuela when they detained and deported the country's president, Nicolás Maduro. However, he said it was "necessary" because the ousted president was a "narco-terrorist." Today, Venezuela is in a much better position than it was six weeks ago, and we're very proud of that, he noted. Rubio declined to comment on the issue of Greenland. Concerning Syria, the US has chosen to cooperate with the local leadership and President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which, according to Rubio, is much better than destabilising the country and causing it to break up into several parts. Rubio highlighted the good agreements currently being prepared with Damascus. am