We Would Never Violate the Sovereignty of Any Country: Rubio
Marco Rubio asserted that the U.S. respects every nation's sovereignty and that Washington follows its NATO partners' rules.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Washington would never infringe another country’s sovereignty, drawing criticism from opponents who contrasted the assertion with U.S. operations in Venezuela and Iran.
“We do what all of our NATO allies do. We would never violate the sovereignty of any country,” Rubio said at a press conference in Lisbon alongside Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel.
The statement came during questions following his prepared remarks as Rubio concluded a tour of Iceland, Greece and Portugal.
Base Access and Defense Ties
The Lisbon visit centered on military cooperation, investment and technology infrastructure.
Access to Portuguese facilities, including Lajes Field in the Azores, formed part of the broader backdrop to the sovereignty debate.
Portugal had authorized U.S. use of the base subject to conditions for earlier operations connected to Iran.
Neighboring Spain had imposed restrictions.
Rubio presented Washington’s approach as consistent with the practices of its NATO partners.
He also advocated a Portuguese purchase of F-35 fighters while acknowledging that Lisbon would determine its own aircraft requirements.
He argued that higher defense spending would strengthen individual alliance members and improve NATO’s collective capabilities.
Critics Point to U.S. Operations
Critics sharing the clip cited the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in January 2026 and operations involving Iran, arguing that those actions contradicted Rubio’s assurance.
The administration has characterized the Venezuela operation as a narrowly defined action against a regime it regards as illegitimate and linked to drug trafficking and foreign adversaries.
It has rejected descriptions of the operation as a war against Venezuela or an indefinite occupation.
Rubio separately signaled that Washington retained its options against Tehran.
“There’s nothing we want or need to do against Iran that we can’t still do,” he said.
Sovereignty As an Alliance Argument
The Lisbon statement followed a speech in Athens in which Rubio argued that Western governments had weakened their independence through industrial outsourcing, reduced military strength and the transfer of authority to remote institutions.
He portrayed alliances as instruments for protecting their members’ sovereignty and national identities.
His Lisbon assurance extended that argument to U.S. conduct abroad, putting the administration’s stated principles alongside the operations its critics dispute.
Ahmet Koçak
Ahmet Koçak is a news editor at Clash Report based in Istanbul. He previously served as Deputy Managing Editor at Türkiye Today, helping launch the digital news platform in 2023, and spent three years as Senior Editor at Daily Sabah. His work focuses on breaking news, geopolitics, international affairs, and digital journalism.
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