Rubio urges Western revival in speech at Acropolis

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for a renewed pursuit of national power Wednesday, telling an audience beneath the Acropolis that decisions made in the next decade will determine whether the West remains influential or enters a period of decline.

“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 and servitude and decline,” Rubio said. “We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all.”

Speaking from the Pnyx, where ancient Athenians held their democratic assembly, Rubio traced Western history from Greece through Rome and European Christianity to the United States. He presented ambition, risk-taking and national pride as qualities that drove its achievements and said modern societies had let them weaken.

“Here, in Athens, we found the first full realization of all the essential traits that would come to define the West,” he said, citing “fierce individuality and relentless ambition” and a desire for “adventure, risk and glory.” He argued that a quest for “perfect safety” had come at the expense of exceptional achievement.

Rubio urged countries, particularly in Europe, to strengthen their institutions and alliances while retaining their distinct identities. “We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was here millennia ago,” he said.

He also criticized what he described as a retreat from national pride. “The word ‘nationalism’ became a dirty word,” Rubio said. “So we tore down our monuments. We condemned our own history, and in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit.” He linked that shift to open borders, outsourced industry and weakened militaries.

“Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice,” he said. “We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power,” including control of critical supply chains, reindustrialization, stronger defenses and leadership in future technologies.

The address came during a three-country trip to Iceland, Greece and Portugal. In Athens, Rubio met Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis for talks on defense, energy and regional security. Rubio called Greece a “strong and model NATO ally.” Gerapetritis said Greece could provide maritime assistance in the Strait of Hormuz if a viable peace process is established, CBS News reported.

The United States is seven months into its war with Iran, according to CBS News. Asked whether Washington might accept any level of Iranian uranium enrichment in an agreement to end the conflict, Rubio declined to specify a threshold. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Simple, period and end of story,” he said. In his speech, he contrasted Western ideas of sacrifice with what he called a “cult of death” among Iran’s “radical mullahs.”

Rubio’s remarks built on a February speech at the Munich Security Conference about a shared Western identity. In Athens, he said cooperation remained essential: “We want to win together. We must win together.”