Marco Rubio Rips EU Critics Who Claim Drug Boat Strikes Violate ‘International Law’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio ripped into European officials on Wednesday for criticizing U.S. strikes against drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

Rubio hit back at critics of U.S. foreign policy regarding drug trafficking in the Western hemisphere while speaking to reporters at a G-7 gathering.

“I don’t think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is. What they certainly don’t get to determine is how the United States defends its national security,” said Rubio when asked about criticisms from some in the EU. “The United States is under attack from organized, criminal narcoterrorists in our hemisphere, and the president is responding in the defense of our country.”

The Secretary of State suggested that the United States’ European critics are hypocrites as they try to balance their desire for American aid and armaments to help Ukraine in its war against Russia with their more conservative attitudes regarding Latin American cartels and drug trafficking.

“I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere, where we live, somehow that’s a problem?” Rubio asked rhetorically.

“I would say that the United States and this president has made very clear his job is to protect the United States from threats against the United States, and that is what he is doing in this operation,” he said.

The U.S. military has stationed several aircraft carriers with a fleet of warships and other war machinery in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela and in the Pacific Ocean to cut off water smuggling routes used by drug cartels. The United States has destroyed roughly 20 boats and submarines so far that the administration has said were being used to smuggle drugs such as fentanyl and cocaine in the United States.

Some officials of U.S. allies have expressed concern at the killings, claiming that the strikes violate “international law” and should be stopped. The United Kingdom has reportedly stopped sharing intelligence with the United States related to drug trafficking in South America to avoid involvement in the strikes.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was more explicit in his criticism. He told reporters at the G-7 summit in Canada that the U.S. “military operations in the Caribbean region … violate international law” and could destabilize the region, according to The Washington Post.