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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said no one raised the Caribbean military operation in closed-door meetings at a G7 summit. But ministers from France and the European Union publicly called them unlawful.
Nov. 12, 2025Updated 9:12 p.m. ET
Secretary of State Marco Rubio left a meeting of major foreign allies on Wednesday saying that he had heard no objections to ongoing U.S. military strikes targeting what the Trump administration has described as drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
But speaking to reporters on the sidelines of their official meetings at the Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada, two senior European diplomats called the Trump administration’s lethal attacks illegitimate.
But Mr. Rubio showed little concern about charges that the strikes, which Pentagon officials say have killed dozens of drug smugglers tied to Venezuela’s government, lack legal justification.
“The bottom line here is that the president is going to defend the national interest and national security of the United States, which is under threat by these terrorist organizations,” he told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario. Mr. Rubio also serves as the national security adviser.
Trump officials have designated several drug cartels as terrorist groups and say that this gives the administration legal authority to kill their members. But some legal experts disagree, arguing that the fatal attacks are extrajudicial killings.
Mr. Rubio added that many of the drug shipments targeted by the U.S. military are ultimately bound for Europe “so maybe they should be thanking us.“
