Marco Rubio Profile: Diplomacy in 2026

Marco Rubio, the 72nd U.S. secretary of state, spent the last two weeks of October 2026 juggling the Iran war, stalled Ukraine peace talks, a pressure campaign on Cuba and a trip through Central Asia and India. He is also President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, making him the first person to hold both posts at once since Henry Kissinger, The Hill reported. This profile looks at what Rubio has said and done in each area, based on State Department records and news reports.

Two jobs at the top of U.S. foreign policy

The Senate confirmed Rubio 99-0 on Jan. 20, 2025, the day Trump took office, according to the Senate roll call. He became acting national security adviser in May 2025, after Mike Waltz left the post. Trump signed a commission making the appointment permanent, a White House official said on Sept. 22, 2026. Asked about carrying both roles, Rubio told Colombian broadcaster RCN, “I’m 100 percent focused on my job, and I have to be because I have two jobs,” according to The Hill.

Some earlier assignments have ended. Rubio’s 2026 federal financial disclosure lists him as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from February to August 2025. It also lists him as archivist of the United States from February 2025 to February 2026. A National Archives spokesman confirmed on Feb. 5, 2026, that he was no longer acting archivist, Reuters reported.

Iran: threats, embassies and Gulf diplomacy

The Iran war has put Rubio’s department on the front line. In a declassified memo dated Oct. 23 and addressed to Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote that Iranian “lethal plotting efforts” against U.S. citizens had “reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” The Hill reported. The State Department is reducing staff at four U.S. embassies in the region, the Associated Press reported. That followed an earlier ordered departure of some nonessential personnel from Saudi Arabia.

On Oct. 22, Rubio spoke with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. According to the State Department readout, he “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Qatar’s security and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz” and thanked Qatar for its mediation. For the latest on the conflict and what each government is saying, see our updated Iran war report.

Ukraine and Russia: “That war is about Donbas”

Rubio has described the Ukraine talks in blunt terms. In an interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini published Oct. 8, he said: “Right now, there don’t seem to be prospects of a negotiated settlement. We are prepared to play whatever role we can in making that happen.” He added that “the Russians have defined victory as the totality of Donetsk… And that’s a condition that, for Ukraine, is simply unacceptable,” Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Speaking in Mumbai on Oct. 21, Rubio called U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oslo “positive, nothing unexpected, nothing surprising,” Al Arabiya reported. Witkoff then carried those ideas to St. Petersburg. A Kremlin adviser said afterward that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed “in principle” to resume three-way talks after Nov. 10, the AP reported. In an Oct. 22 interview with India Today, Rubio said: “That war is about Donbas. It’s about one region of the country… about 11 percent of one part of that country that Russia wants and cannot take militarily and that Ukraine is unwilling to give up,” the Kyiv Independent reported.

Rubio also addressed reports of slowed Starlink and Starshield service in Ukraine. “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk,” he said, adding, “there was no foreknowledge.”

Cuba, Venezuela and the hemisphere

Rubio, whose parents emigrated from Cuba, has taken a central role in pressure on Havana. On Oct. 23 he wrote on X: “To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time… seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.” The CIA reposted the message with Spanish-language contact instructions, CBS News reported. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío responded on X that “the United States is resorting to public recruitment for the CIA,” AFP reported. Our earlier coverage: Rubio’s CIA call to Cubans.

Washington has increased pressure on Cuba since the U.S. military captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, Al Jazeera reported. On Oct. 22 Rubio announced new visa restrictions on people in Colombia and Bolivia under a policy aimed at “foreign nationals who, through corruption or narcotrafficking activities, undermine democratically elected governments in our hemisphere.” The Colombia statement names seven nationals, including a former president of the state oil company Ecopetrol.

China, Central Asia and India

Rubio spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sept. 17, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s U.S. visit, Reuters reported. China’s Foreign Ministry said Wang called head-of-state diplomacy “the anchor of China-U.S. relations.” That is Beijing’s own account, a state source Unverified claim, PRC Foreign Ministry (Chinese government). In July the two met in Manila, where Rubio said they discussed laying groundwork for “a very positive visit.”

From Oct. 17 to 22 Rubio traveled to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the C5+1 ministerial with the five Central Asian states. The State Department said he led a commercial delegation of more than 200 business leaders. He then made his second official visit of the year to India, meeting External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Mumbai. Earlier in October he visited Iceland, Greece and Portugal, leading the U.S. delegation to the Sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue.

Background

Rubio was born in Miami in 1971. He served in the U.S. Senate for Florida from January 2011 to January 2025, after earlier serving as speaker of the Florida House. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and ended his campaign after losing the Florida primary that March. More on administration personnel and actions is on our Trump Presidency Tracker and the Geopolitics hub.

Sources

Additional sources

Featured image: Official portrait of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, January 2025. U.S. Department of State, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Marco Rubio as Secretary of State: Iran, Ukraine, Cuba and Two Jobs