In his State of Union address, US President Donald Trump singled out Secretary of State Marco Rubio for lavish praise. “You have done a great job, great Secretary of State. I think he’ll go down as the best ever,” Trump said about Rubio.While Trump did not give reasons for this endorsement, earlier this month, Rubio was discussed across the world for his address at the Munich Security Conference. Rubio’s speech was favourably compared with that of US Vice President JD Vance’s the year before.But while Rubio’s language and tone were more conciliatory than Vance’s abrasive attack, did his speech signal any recalibration of the Trump administration’s Europe strategy? How have the US and Europe fared on the main issues Rubio mentioned, of climate change and migration?A partnership that endured despite differencesGiven their civilizational links and the need to keep Russia in check, the US bound itself with Europe through NATO after WWII. It also felt that an economically strong Europe was needed and supported European economic integration, now embodied in the EU, and even the UK’s being integral to that.Not surprisingly, given US politics, while the then presidential candidate Donald Trump encouraged Nigel Farage and his push for Brexit (UK exiting EU), official America under President Obama cautioned the UK on taking such a step. Essentially, it was these ties that steeped West Europe, the main hub of the EU, into the democratic values and ways of life of the anglophone world (US and UK).For decades, Europe and America held each other’s back despite divergences in view. For example, in 1956, the US didn’t favour an Anglo-French invasion of the Suez Canal and proposed a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire and withdrawal of their forces. In 2003, the US couldn’t get a UNSC resolution to use force against Iraq as France joined Russia and China in opposing such a move. A ‘coalition of the willing’ had to be set up in what was essentially unilateral action by the US.The present discord, however, undermines the key transatlantic binders of mutual security and respect for each other’s national sovereignty. Trump continues to have his eye on Greenland, a Danish territory, and is pushing for a ‘deal’ with Russia that may cede Ukrainian territory and undermine Europe’s security. Trump has also found reasons to disparage the EU, levying it with tariffs and attacking its regulatory stance that curbs the freewheeling of US technology companies.Story continues below this adRubio’s comments were made in this context, striking the note of ‘tough love’.Stating that end of the trans-Atlantic era was “neither our goal nor our wish,” he added that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.” However, he also decried “an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies”, and called climate change action “a climate cult”.Climate changeOn climate change, it bears remembering that the US didn’t ratify the binding emissions reduction pact for developed countries, the Kyoto Protocol, while the Europeans did so. Interestingly but not surprisingly, this didn’t really mark a rupture between Europe and the US, but rather saw them coming together in just a few years, seeking to end binding limitations for developed countries and instead roping in large developing countries on emission targets.The Paris Agreement in effect scrapped common but differentiated responsibilities, the key UNFCCC principle, by seeking commitments from all countries, albeit voluntarily. While the US remained out through Trump 1.0, the Joe Biden Administration not only brought it back into the fold but was the leader in pushing for a global goal of Net Zero by 2050.Story continues below this adClimate change appears to be a particular peeve for Trump, who has called it a hoax. He is unabashed in the pursuit of fossil fuels, which he believes are and must remain the engines of powering economic might.Across the Atlantic, after years of championing the fight against climate change, the Europeans are today scaling back some of their ambitious targets, both from reprioritising monies for national security and sensing climate fatigue in their populations.Migration of ‘outsiders’ has obviously been identified as a key action point by the Americans for Europe. This is an area that the Europeans are acutely aware of but limited in enforcing ICE-like action given the human rights’ laws now prevailing in most of Europe and the image they have sought to create for themselves as liberal societies, an idea that owes much to the ‘oldest democracy in the world’, as the US likes to call itself.Action on migration has domestic political ramifications for the centrist parties that have basically governed European countries for decades. They know that they must respond to the public pressure against mass inward migration of outsiders, also because of the rise of right-wing parties across the continent, and not just in the former East Europem which had been under the Soviet yoke till about 30 years back and where the nationalist/nativist fervor is strongest.Great Powers and pretensionsStory continues below this adThe US is a hegemonic power and has acted like one since it ascended the global power totem pole post WWII, not even joining global treaties like UNCLOS (or the law of the sea).The Europeans, on the other hand, haven’t really gotten over their colonial hangover, but being militarily diminished, have sought to position themselves as new-age global hegemons over the Global South, championing good governance, human rights and the fight against climate change.The Munich Security Conference saw much talk on the old order being dead and the need for a new one but interestingly the US aim was to push back to times gone by, while being quite open to deals with both Russia and China.While being generally relieved by hearing words underscoring a common transatlantic mission, several EU leaders did push back on suggestions of their ‘civilizational erasure’ and for others, no matter the palliative, an irreversible hurt to transatlantic unity can no longer be masked.Story continues below this adHopefully, this will see a shoring up by Europe both internally and in pushing for a certain strategic autonomy from the US, though not a major rupture that could lead to a US-China G2 in the world. Genuine multipolarity would also bode well for India, one of the strongest emerging powers on the global high table.