Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a message on Tuesday for the critics of President Trump’s diplomacy: grow up. Asked in Mumbai whether China is open to talks on nuclear arms, Rubio said, “Well, the only way you’re going to find out is to try.” Then he added: “I think it’s time for, I’m not saying you individually, but people need to grow up when it comes to foreign policy a little bit.”
Rubio said there is nothing strange about the world’s nuclear powers talking. “I don’t think it’s unusual, frankly, for the three most powerful nuclear-armed nations on Earth for their leaders to communicate with one another,” he said. “I think it makes all the sense in the world.” He praised the President’s approach: “We also have a president, rightfully so, who does not consider talking to someone to be a concession.”
He took on the cable news crowd directly. “I hear people on the TV, oh, you’re rewarding so-and-so by talking to them. Well, that’s absurd,” Rubio said. “How are you going to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine if you don’t talk to Russia and Ukraine? You have to talk to them, right?”
President Trump laid out the stakes on Monday as he left the White House for Kansas. “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. Russia is second. China’s third but catching up,” he said. He said he would welcome a meeting “based on the denuclearization,” and that he will be in China in November for those talks. “If we could do denuclearization, I will have done the world a big, big favor,” he said.
Rubio said the world is “a safer place when the leaders of the most powerful nuclear arsenals in the world are at least communicating with one another.” He said he does not know if China is willing, but “the fact we have a president that was willing to try is a good thing, something Americans should be proud and happy about.” That is peace through strength.
