← Videos · Foreign Policy & Defense

Secretary Rubio Speaks to Press at Joint Base Andrews Before Departing for the G7, Mar. 26, 2026

March 26, 2026 · U.S. Department of State · 0:03:36

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio took questions at Joint Base Andrews on March 26, 2026, before departing for the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting at Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, France. Asked whether he would ask the G7 for help with the Strait of Hormuz, he said it is in the allies’ interest to help — “the other countries get far more of their fuel from there than we do” — and left specifics such as minesweepers or naval help to the Department of War. The strait, he said, “could be open tomorrow if Iran stops threatening global shipping, which is an outrage and a violation of international law.”

On the President’s criticism of NATO that morning, Rubio called it an observation: the United States is constantly asked to help in wars on other continents — “Ukraine is not America’s war, and yet we’ve contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world” — while a U.S. need drew negative responses from some European leaders. Asked about his reception in France, he said he was not concerned: “the people I’m interested in making happy are the people of the United States. That’s who I work for.” On Iran diplomacy, he deferred deadline questions to the President’s cabinet-meeting remarks and said intermediary countries are passing messages, “some concrete progress has been made,” and energy flows through the strait have picked up somewhat, though the process is “ongoing and fluid” and will not be negotiated in the media.

Why it matters

A short departure gaggle that states, in one pass, the three arguments Rubio then carried into the G7 room: Hormuz as the allies’ interest more than America’s, burden-sharing as the context for the President’s NATO criticism, and quiet message-passing — not media negotiation — as the Iran channel.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to the Press” (official upload, embedded above); transcript via state.gov as linked in the upload description. Remarks as delivered.