Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) promised to make the State Department “relevant again” during his confirmation hearing to lead the agency, facing a receptive audience among Senate colleagues he has served with for more than a decade. Rubio is expected to receive broad bipartisan backing, with a number of Senate Democrats expressing full-throated support for his confirmation to be America’s top diplomat. “I’ve always been struck working with Senator Rubio on this committee, since I came to the Senate in January 2013, that he has a very well-developed sense of the world and a passion and interest in all corners of it,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said during the hearing.  Kaine later announced he’d be a “Yes” vote on Rubio’s confirmation. It marked a stark contrast to his grilling of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, the previous day.  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a business meeting Monday to vote to advance Rubio’s nomination to the Senate floor.  “I hope I can earn your support — either you think I’ll do a good job, or you are trying to get rid of me,” Rubio said to laughs. “The result is the same,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) joked. Lawmakers were largely receptive to Rubio’s stances on America’s foreign policy priorities, and they barely touched on controversial issues such as Trump’s imperialistic threats to Canada, Greenland and Panama; conflicts of interest over the president-elect’s global business ties; and likely reversals to some of President Biden’s foreign policy decisions.  Here are five key takeaways from Rubio’s hearing.  Rubio wants to make State Department 'relevant again' “We want the State Department to be relevant again, and it should be,” Rubio said, arguing the agency has lost influence to leaner, more agile agencies like the National Security Council because “it takes so long for the State Department to take action.”  But Rubio is likely to have competition within the Trump administration when it comes to foreign policy maneuvering, and not only from Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), the incoming national security adviser.  Trump has announced a number of special envoys for key foreign policy issues, most of whom have relatively close ties to the president.  Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, has been assigned the undefined role of presidential envoy for “special missions.” Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg was appointed special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Steve Witkoff will be Trump's special envoy for the Middle East and Massad Boulos will be the president-elect's senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. “How I anticipate it works, these envoys work for the president in coordination with us,” Rubio said.  Rubio said he had worked well with all those men, except Boulos, whom he only met once.  Rubio said special envoy positions are most successful when there is a “complex issue, with a defined goal and expression of presidential authority.”  Under a law passed in 2022, special envoys that technically report to the State Department require confirmation by the Senate, although its unclear if Trump’s envoys will get around the need for confirmation if housed under the purview of the White House.  Says Cuba is 'without a question' State Sponsor of Terrorism Rubio pushed back on President Biden’s eleventh-hour decision to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which occurred nearly four years exactly after Trump, in his first term, imposed the designation on the country.  Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to the U.S., said Cuba “without a question” deserved the designation in response to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is also the son of Cuban immigrants. “I hope on that very first day you will reverse that determination,” Cruz said.  Rubio said such a decision is up to Trump, but he added that nothing Biden has done is “irreversible or binding on the new administration.”  “The president sets our foreign policy, and my job is to execute it,” he said. Calls NATO 'important,' says Ukraine needs to make concessions Lawmakers supportive of Ukraine pushed Rubio on Trump’s plans to end Russia’s war of aggression, concerned about the president-elect’s promises to hold back U.S. support for Kyiv, undermine its security and force a concession on territory. Rubio said Trump’s policy is to push for an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but he said it’s “not going to be an easy endeavor.”   “Putin’s goal now is to have maximum leverage. … By the same token, I think it’s important Ukrainians have leverage, but also have to make concessions to make this agreement,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked Rubio if he maintained support for a 2023 law he authored that blocks any president from withdrawing from the NATO alliance without the approval of Congress.  “The NATO alliance is important, I believe that,” Rubio said, adding he supports Congress’s role of controlling the money that funds U.S. participation to the alliance. Pressed on Trump’s global business ties Rubio was pushed into awkward territory when Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) brought up the Trump family’s foreign business connections, questioning whether those ties could cause a conflict of interest and complicate diplomacy in a second Trump term. Trump and his family have “become more deeply dependent” on revenue from Middle Eastern governments during and after his first White House stint, Murphy said, pointing to the Trump Organization planning new real estate projects in Saudi Arabia.  “My understanding … is the president doesn’t manage that company. His family members do, and they have a right to be in the business,” Rubio said.  The Trump Organization, the family company overseeing its hotel and real estate endeavors, is helmed by the president-elect's two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.  Touches on Canada, Greenland and Panama  Rubio also took questions about two regions making headlines as President-elect Trump talks about potential territorial expansion in his second term.  Trump has doubled down in recent weeks on suggestions that the U.S. should acquire Greenland, the self-governing Arctic territory under Denmark’s control, and the Panama Canal, a key waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  “We’re an Arctic power. The Russians are an Arctic power. The Chinese are not,” Rubio said when asked by Shaheen about what the U.S. posture in the region should be.  “Putting aside all the things that are going on in the media, I think we need to understand that Greenland’s been strategically important to the United States and to the West for a very long time,” Rubio said.  His comments come after Trump last week refused to rule out using military action to acquire Greenland or the Panama Canal. Rubio also said there’s a “very legitimate issue” with the Panama Canal and raised concerns about foreign influence on the trade route, echoing Trump’s warnings that China is controlling it — though the Panama Canal Authority has dismissed these claims.  “While, technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, through their companies — which we know are not independent — the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict, and that is a direct threat to the national interest and security of the United States,” Rubio said.