U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today secured foreign policy commitments from Secretary of State nominee, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, during his confirmation hearing. Specifically, Daines secured commitments from Rubio to combat Iran’s illegal oil sales, how he will help strengthen the United States’ ties in Central Asia and how the United States can work with Mexico to shut down drug cartels.
Watch Daines’ remarks HERE.
“You are charged with one of the most important tasks the administration will have, and that’s advancing President Trump’s agenda and representing the interests of the United States around the world. I can’t think of a better nominee to serve as Secretary of State under President Trump than Marco Rubio. You’ll have a lot of active conflicts we’re working on, as we think about what’s going on in Ukraine, Israel, Sudan, ongoing nuclear weapons programs in Iran, the tyranny in Venezuela. The New Start Treaty has been completely disregarded by Russia- not to mention what we have to think about strategies as it relates to China. I could continue to list the results that we saw from the Trump administration, from the Abraham Accords, really moving forward here with significant, substantive advancements of American interests abroad. This next administration, and the leadership of President Trump, will be extremely consequential. This post could not be more important.”
Daines questioned Rubio on his plans to combat illegal oil sales by Iran:
Daines: As you know, Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terror. In 2024, Iran exported roughly 587 million barrels of oil, an increase of over 10 % percent over the prior year. These illegal oil sales fund Hamas, the Hezbollah terrorism, the Houthis, the nuclear arms programs, drone technology that’s being used right now by the Russians against Ukraine. These oil sales are directly resulting in global unrest and they’re costing innocent lives. Senator, if you are confirmed, what would be your goals and strategies about addressing Iran as an adversary?
Rubio: My view of it is that we should be open to any arrangement that allows us to have safety and stability in the region, but one in which we’re clear -eyed. Any concessions we make to the Iranian regime, we should anticipate that they will use, as they have used in the past, to build their weapons systems and to try to restart their sponsorship of Hezbollah and other related entities around the region because they seek to become the dominant regional power. That’s their stated goal and it’s been clear by the actions that they’ve taken…What cannot be allowed under any circumstances is a nuclear armed Iran. What cannot be allowed under any circumstances is an Iranian regime that has the resources and the capability to restart and continue their sponsorship of terrorism. And what cannot be allowed under any circumstances is an Iran with a military capability of threatening and destabilizing its neighbors and potentially reaching the homeland as well, both kinetically and directly and also through their surrogate groups who have long planned contingencies for attacks. And let us not forget that this is a group, these are individuals that have spent the last five years actively and openly plotting the assassination of the president -elect and of multiple members of previous administrations. Think about this for a moment. When is the last time you heard that a foreign government is actively, openly, and admittedly seeking to assassinate the former secretary of state, the former and soon to be once again president of the United States?
Daines also asked for Rubio’s commitment to work together to strengthen U.S. ties in Central Asia:
Daines: Shortly after the election and prior to Thanksgiving, I took a quick trip over to Central Asia. I discussed that with you a bit- to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. In fact, in the last 12 months, I visited all five of the Central Asian countries. In fact, I was bedded down, speaking of Iran, 20 miles from the Iranian border in Ashkaba, Turkmenistan. They have the fourth largest reserves of natural gas in the world, but this is a part of the world that is often neglected, but has such strategic importance as you’ve got Iran, you’ve got Afghanistan, Russia, and certainly China, as they talk about living in a submarine, as they look into- Chinese are competing for their favor…One of the first goals of the caucus that Senator Gary Peters and I created of Central Asia is to repeal the Jackson-Vanik label on the region and extend permanent normal tribulations with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. I realize you have a lot of priorities on your plate when you will be confirmed as our secretary, but I would say rescinding it would be a good faith indication, the Jackson -Vanik amendments that Central Asia needs right now to grow. My question is, would you work with me and Senator Peters to have your team work with us to remove this designation?
Rubio: Yeah, and I believe the permanent removal will require legislative action. I don’t think Senator Murphy has a bill on that as well. Yours is three countries. Look, I think this is a relic of an era that’s past. There are some that argue that we should use that as leverage for human rights concessions or leverage to get them to go stronger in our way as opposed to Russia and the like. But I think in some cases it’s an absurd relic of the past. I think it’s Kazakhstan, who the Department of Commerce has already said is a market economy. In fact, I think they hosted the WTO ministerial just a couple of years ago. So they’ve met the conditions. So we will work with you on this ’cause I think it’s important.
Daines: I’m looking forward to working with Senator Murphy on this. You know, that C5 +1, which is Central Asian countries, plus the United States. Hope we can work with President Trump, actually, to think about maybe hosting some kind of a summit there. Very strategic. After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we need more friends in Central Asia, and I look forward to working on that.
Finally, Daines and Rubio discussed the importance of cracking down on cartels crossing the U.S.-Mexican border:
Daines: In the time I have left, when I open up my comments, we talk about all these conflicts around the world, sometimes we forget some of the most important relationships are right in our backyard thinking about Mexico. With the near showing going on at the moment, a lot of production coming now into more of our time zone and hemisphere coming from China and so forth. Laredo, Texas is now the largest port in the United States. I think it’s one of the under reported facts in our country. You talked about the cartels, they have command and control certainly on the border at the moment. My question is, you think about Mexico, and you’ve been so active on Latin America and looking south of the United States, with President Scheinbaum now just coming in office, what are your thoughts around how do we become better engaged with Mexico to help them with their issue as it relates to the cartels basically which are running the country?
Rubio: …this violence that our border has to be addressed. I think they pose a threat to the United States most certainly the flooding us with the fentanyl, the criminal activities occurring within the United States facilitated by these groups who have become vertically integrated. These are not the Colombian cartels, these transnational groups are now vertically integrated, they are the suppliers all the way down to the street level and all the way up to the production level. They are vertically integrated criminal enterprises, but they are also threatening the sovereignty and security of the Mexican state. And as I pointed, there are journalists, and there are politicians who have been assassinated for standing up to these cartels, and it tells you the amount of leverage so they have over the government as a result of it. So it is in their interest, as well as ours, that we work cooperatively to take these groups apart and not allow them to continue the reign of terror, not just in the border region of Mexico, but spilling over into the United States.
###
Contact: Matt Lloyd, Rachel Dumke