Takeaways from Marco Rubio’s Senate hearing

Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida appointed by Donald J. Trump to be the next secretary of state, received a standing ovation from senators from both parties at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He has served for years on the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees and is known as a lawmaker devoted to the minutiae of foreign policy.

“I believe you have the good skills and qualifications to serve as Secretary of State,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of Hampshire, said in her opening remarks.

The perceived lack of tension at the hearing suggests that Mr. Rubio will almost certainly be quickly confirmed.

Republican and Democratic senators agree on the biggest challenges facing the United States.

From the questions, it was clear what the senators wanted Mr. Rubio and the Trump administration to focus on: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Mr. Rubio himself He referred to those four forces – What some call the “pivot” – in his opening remarks.

He said that they “sow chaos and instability, ally with and finance extremist terrorist groups, and then hide behind their veto power at the United Nations and the threat of nuclear war.” As permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and Russia have veto power over UN resolutions.

Mr. Rubio has repeatedly singled out the Chinese Communist Party for criticism and, unlike Mr. Trump, has no praise for any of the autocrats running those countries.

He said the administration’s official policy on Ukraine would be to try to end the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that leaders in both Kiev and Moscow would need to make concessions. American officials say that Russia drew its allies and partners into the war, and relied on North Korea for troops and weapons, on Iran for weapons and training, and on China to rebuild the Russian defense industrial base.

Rubio’s position on Israel and Gaza falls within the Washington foreign policy consensus.

Mr. Rubio defended Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, blaming Hamas for using civilians as human shields, and calling the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, most of them non-combatants, “one of the terrible things in war.”

He expressed his concern about the threats to Israel’s security. “You cannot coexist with armed elements on your borders who seek to destroy and eviscerate you as a country. “You can’t,” he said.

Asked whether he believed Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territories would be inconsistent with peace and security in the Middle East, Mr. Rubio did not provide a direct answer, calling it a “very complex issue.”

Mr. Rubio’s hearing lasted about two hours when the committee chairman made the announcement Israel and Hamas reached an agreement Initiating a temporary ceasefire and partial release of hostages in Gaza. The hostage agreement and initial ceasefire, reached in November 2023, collapsed after a week.

Rubio supports American alliances, despite Trump’s constant attacks on them.

Mr. Rubio called NATO, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized, “a very important alliance” and insisted that Mr. Trump was a supporter of NATO. But he also supported Trump’s argument that a strong NATO requires Europe to spend more money on its collective defense.

He said the United States must choose whether to serve a “primary defensive or supporting role” for a self-reliant Europe.

Although many of his Senate colleagues have praised him, Rubio has critics.

Some prominent Trump supporters still do not trust Mr. Rubio. They remember his vote to certify the 2020 election results despite Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud. They consider Mr. Rubio’s foreign policy record to be dangerously interventionist.

Mr. Rubio has long been a hawkish voice on national security issues, often in ways at odds with Mr. Trump’s views, even if the ideas are traditional among Republican politicians and centrist Democrats.

In the past, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has criticized Mr. Rubio for calling for aggressive American intervention abroad. Mr. Paul has been outspoken in pushing for reduced use of American forces abroad, and is skeptical about whether economic sanctions can lead to positive results.

On Wednesday, Paul pointedly asked Rubio whether he saw any way to work with China rather than continuing attacks on Beijing, and also questioned the wisdom of several American and European policymakers who have insisted that Ukraine should be admitted into NATO.