US not withdrawing from world, says Rubio

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday insisted that the Trump administration was not withdrawing from the world, as he batted away criticism of its cuts to foreign aid and diplomatic budgets from his former colleagues in Congress, some of whom regret voting to confirm him because he has not stood up to President Donald Trump.

In a sometimes feisty first testimony as the country’s top diplomat, Rubio was challenged over his role in the administration’s crackdown on immigration, Trump’s engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the decision to prioritize the resettlement in the United States of white South Africans over refugees from elsewhere.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said the intent of changes he is overseeing was “not to dismantle American foreign policy, and it is not to withdraw us from the world,” citing his travel since taking office in January.

“I just hit 18 countries in 18 weeks,” Rubio said. “That doesn’t sound like much of a withdrawal.”

Trump’s administration has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but has begun to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers in South Africa, saying they faced discrimination and even genocide. South Africa’s government denies the allegation of genocide.

“While you’ve turned away from a genocide in Sudan and invented one in South Africa, you’ve teamed up with President Trump to throw the Ukrainian people under the bus, and have been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin,” Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said in a blistering critique of Rubio’s about-face on many issues he embraced as a senator.

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“You used to speak with conviction about the importance of foreign aid as a tool to advance American values and interests. Then you stood by while Elon Musk took a chainsaw to USAID and other assistance programs,” Van Hollen said, adding that he regretted his vote for Rubio’s nomination.

“First of all, your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” Rubio retorted, before the hearing devolved into a shouting exchange, something unusual for a committee long known for bipartisanship.

On Russia, Rubio said Putin had not received any real concessions in the US effort to initiate talks to end the war in Ukraine and Russia sanctions remain in place.

AID CUTS

Rubio told the committee that the $28.5 billion budget request by the Trump administration for the 2025/2026 fiscal year will allow his department to continue enacting Trump’s vision while cutting $20 billion of “duplicative, wasteful, and ideologically driven programs.”

Rubio faced tough questions about the decimation of foreign aid – he was an advocate of such aid during his 14 years in the Senate – while slashing staff at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, which used to spend roughly $40 billion a year and is being folded into the State Department.

Rubio said that many of the programs he has cut did not serve U.S. interests, and that Washington would remain the world’s most generous donor of humanitarian aid.

The administration is proposing a new $2.9 billion America First Opportunity Fund (A1OF) that would take on foreign aid, building on “lessons we learned from USAID,” Rubio said.

Senators also asked Rubio about Trump’s plans to unwind Syria sanctions, Rubio’s role in the administration’s immigration crackdown, the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Rubio said the current U.S. assessment is that the Syrian government is precarious, given its wide range of challenges. He said the State Department would allow staff in Turkey, including the ambassador there, to work with local officials in Syria to determine what kind of aid they need.

“It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, is maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up,” he said.

A few protesters interrupted Rubio’s testimony with shouts of “Stop the genocide,” before police bundled them out of the hearing room. Protesters have been regularly interrupting congressional hearings during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Rubio welcomed Israel’s decision to let in some humanitarian aid after a weeks-long blockade, and said he sees Israel’s actions in Gaza as targeting Hamas militants.

Washington had asked other countries in the region if they would be open to accepting Palestinians from Gaza who want to move voluntarily, Rubio said, although he denied reports there were talks for Libya to take in refugees from Gaza.

MULTIPLE ROLES

Republicans have praised Rubio, who has become a crucial figure in the Trump administration. He currently is also serving as Trump’s acting national security adviser, the USAID administrator, and the acting archivist of the United States.

Rubio is the first person since Henry Kissinger in the 1970s to hold the secretary of state and national security adviser positions simultaneously.

“When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved,” Trump said earlier this month.

Rubio acknowledged his many roles to the committee, joking that he was pleased to be appearing on behalf of the National Archives.

After his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio was scheduled to speak to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s State and Foreign Operations subcommittee at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).

On Wednesday, he is due to testify before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Appropriations Committee’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee.