Marco Rubio

Yes, it would be ideal to have a Western supply chain that is free from extortion from anyone.

Leave aside China, anybody else.

We should never have to—we should never be in a situation where our alliance and our respective countries are vulnerable to extortion or blackmail because someone controls 99 percent of something that's critical to national life.

So I think we do have a vested interest in that regard.

Today is different than yesterday, but it has parallels, not in that China's the new Soviet Union, but that—

in our future collectively will be stronger if we work on these things together.

No, I think nation states need to interact with one another.

Just because you've, I mean, remember, I serve under a president that's willing to meet with anybody.

I mean, to be frank, I'm pretty confident in saying that if the Ayatollah said tomorrow he wanted to meet with President Trump, the president would meet him, not because he agrees with the Ayatollah, but because he thinks that's the way you solve problems in the world and he doesn't view meeting someone as a concession.

Likewise, the president intends to travel to Beijing and has already met once with President Xi.

And in this very forum yesterday, I met with my counterpart, the foreign minister of China.

So we expect nation states to interact with one another.

In the end, we expect nation states to act in their national interest.

That in no way runs counter to our desire to work together on things that we share in common or threats we face in common.

But I don't think visiting Beijing or meeting with the Chinese is on the contrary.

I think it would be irresponsible for great powers not to have relationships and talk through things and to the extent possible avoid unnecessary conflict.

But there will be areas we'll never agree on.

And those are the areas that I hope we can work together on.

There's no rupture.

I mean, even as I speak to you now, there are US troops deployed here on this continent on behalf of NATO.