Rubio says U.S. wants to ‘partner’ with countries on hemisphere issues

The United States wants to “partner” with countries in the Western hemisphere, including Canada, to collectively tackle issues like narco-terrorism and mass migration, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.
In a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to mark the end of his first year as America’s top diplomat, Rubio faced several questions on the Trump administration’s new national security strategy that seeks to re-establish U.S. leadership and dominance over the hemisphere.
Canada has raised concerns about those nations becoming American so-called “vassal states” as a result of the strategy, which outlines a desire to “enlist” countries in the Western hemisphere to carry out U.S. policy goals in the region. Rubio, who also serves as U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said he was involved in crafting the strategy and said the entire goal was to protect American national interests.Asked how the strategy will impact relations with other hemispheric powers like Canada and Mexico, Rubio suggested those and other countries in the region have the same goal of safety and security.
“We want to partner with as many people (as we can) — they face the same threats that we do,” he said, pointing to violence and corruption in parts of Mexico as examples of the threat posed by transnational drug cartels — a threat Canada also faces.
“They (Mexico) recognize it, which is why they’re partnering with us. We naturally want to collaborate with other regional governments to face this challenge, and most of the time, we have places where cooperation is possible. Trump’s strategy for the Western hemisphere has seen recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela, which Rubio repeatedly insisted Friday are focused on stopping drug trafficking, not on ousting President Nicolas Maduro from power.“ We have a regime that’s illegitimate,” he added, a comment he made multiple times while pointing to both the disputed presidential election last year and a U.S. indictment against Maduro.
Trump did not rule out a war with Venezuela in an interview on Friday with NBC News. Rubio said he would not speculate on whether the U.S. will take any additional actions that, by law, will require congressional approval. He said “nothing has happened” so far that would require that approval “or cross the threshold into war.”