WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference, dismissing concerns that his speech had irritated US allies.

Speaking in an interview with CBS News, Rubio said Vance's speech mostly emphasized internal threats over foreign adversaries and called for broader inclusion of right-wing views.

"Why would our allies or anybody be irritated by free speech and by someone giving their opinion? We are, after all, democracies," said Rubio.

"The Munich Security Conference is largely a conference of democracies, in which one of the things that we cherish and value is the ability to speak freely and provide your opinions. And so I think if anyone’s angry about his words – they don’t have to agree with him, but to be angry about it I think actually makes his point," he added.

Rubio called Vance's speech as "pretty historic speech."

"Whether you agree with him or not, I think the valid points he’s making to Europe is we are concerned that the true values that we share, the values that bind us together with Europe, are things like free speech and democracy and our shared history in winning two World Wars and defeating Soviet communism and the like," he said.

"These are values that we’ve shared in common. And in that Cold War, we fought against things like censorship and oppression and so forth," he added.

Vance’s controversial speech drew widespread condemnation.

His criticism of European governments' stance against far-right parties stunned many attendees on Friday, as he claimed Europe was abandoning “shared democratic values.”

He asserted that Europe's greatest threat came not from Russia or China but from within – pointing to what he termed “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” Vance also accused the European Union Commission of restricting social media freedoms and condemned European courts for what he claimed was the unfair nullification of election results.

Following his speech, Vance met with AfD (Alternative for Germany) Co-Chair Alice Weidel in Munich, indicating support just a week before Germany's parliamentary elections on Feb. 23, in a breach of diplomatic norms.