Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia], July 11 : US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur, addressed questions regarding President Trump's remarks on a new deal between the United States and NATO to supply weapons to Ukraine and elaborated on America's broader regional priorities.
Further elaborating on NATO's potential contributions, Rubio highlighted that many member nations already possess the kinds of defensive systems Ukraine urgently needs.
"In addition to that, I would point to the fact that a number of the defensive weapons that Ukraine seeks are in our Allies in NATO have them. So, as an example, Germany, I believe, has 13 or 14 Patriot batteries. Other countries do as well, some others, and some have placed orders for that. And so we continue to encourage our NATO Allies to provide those weapons, those systems, those defensive systems that Ukraine seeks - that they should provide those weapons to Ukraine since they have them in their stocks, and then we can enter into financial agreements with us where they can purchase the replacements," Rubio said.
When asked to clarify President Trump's statement that NATO would fully pay for US weaponry being supplied to Ukraine, Rubio explained the arrangement, pointing to existing frameworks already being pursued by Ukraine and European allies.
"Well, I think what you're referring to is something that Ukraine has already offered, and so has Europe, and that is to buy weapons from the United States and then provide them to Ukraine. At the end of the day, some of the systems that Ukraine requires are systems that Europe doesn't make. They would have to purchase them from the United States," he said.
Shifting the focus to America's engagement in the Indo-Pacific, Rubio responded to concerns about the US's regional commitment.
"No, I'm just saying that it was a very friendly environment, and I think the reiteration to the point we made, and that is, look, I read these things about how the US is not focused on the Indo-Pacific. But it's funny - everywhere I travel in the world, the headline is: The U.S. is not paying enough attention, whether it's the Western Hemisphere or NATO or even in the Middle East," he said.
Rubio reaffirmed that the US remains firmly engaged with Southeast Asia through economic and defence ties.
"I think sometimes there's a media dynamic that covers certain parts of the world more than others, but the relationships we have here have existed for a long time - a long time. When you talk about 6,000 American companies that are directly invested in the economies of Southeast Asia, we're not walking away from that. We're not walking away from that; we're not walking away from our defence ties that we have in the region; we're not walking away from the strong economic ties we have in the region. On the contrary, we want to build on it," Rubio noted.
Rubio also pointed to recent agreements with regional partners as proof of ongoing cooperation.
"Just yesterday we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Malaysia on civil nuclear cooperation. The - I believe as early - either last night or early this morning, our arrangement with - on another civil nuclear program with Thailand came into effect. So we have a lot of positive things going on and we're going to continue to build on those. We're excited about them and we're not going to walk away from them," Rubio said.