Merz warned the US could not go it alone, but also said Europe must beef up its own defences and mentioned confidential talks with France on nuclear deterrence.
The speech underscored how European leaders are increasingly looking to carve an independent path after a year of unprecedented upheaval in transatlantic ties, while also striving to maintain their alliance with Washington.
German leader says even US won’t be able to ‘go it alone’ after end of old global order
Taking his cue from those warning that the international rules-based order was about to be destroyed, Merz said: “I fear we must put it even more bluntly: This order, however imperfect it was even at its best, no longer exists in that form.”
Switching to English at the end, the German chancellor said: “In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of Nato is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It is also the United States’ competitive advantage.
“So let’s repair and revive transatlantic trust together.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said transatlantic ties faced a “defining moment” in a rapidly changing world, but struck a more conciliatory tone that contrasted with remarks by Vice President J. D. Vance last year.
At the same gathering of top security officials last year, Vance had attacked European allies in a speech that marked the start of a series of confrontation with Washington’s partners, who face myriad threats from Russia’s war in Ukraine to massive ructions in global trade.
“I think it’s at a defining moment … the world is changing very fast right in front of us,” Rubio said before departing for Munich.
“The Old World is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in, and we live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be,” he said.
“(The US is) deeply tied to Europe, and our futures have always been linked and will continue to be,” said Rubio, who is a potential rival to Vance for the 2028 US presidential race.
“So we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like.”
This year’s meeting comes against a backdrop of multiple conflicts, including wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
Transatlantic ties have long been central to the Munich Security Conference, which began as a Cold War forum for Western defence debate.
But the unquestioned assumption of cooperation that underpinned it has been upended.
Underscoring the damage, a YouGov poll of the six largest European countries showed favourability towards the US in Europe hitting its lowest since tracking began in 2016.
European governments have long preached unity as the best response to US and Chinese economic pressure, but are discovering they need urgently to boost the continent’s competitiveness and that waiting for all 27 member states to agree may take too long.
That was the clear message from an informal EU summit in Belgium on Thursday, where French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave the bloc until June to progress on a stalled union of financial markets.
The Capital Markets Union would allow the bloc to invest at scale at a level to match the United States, but vested interests in various countries and professional groups have held back any integration for more than a decade.
Now, unless there is sufficient progress by June, a smaller group of at least nine European Union members could press ahead in “enhanced cooperation” with the required steps and reforms, von der Leyen and Macron said.
“Often we move forward with the speed of the slowest and the enhanced cooperation avoids that,” von der Leyen told reporters. “The pressure and the sense of urgency is enormous, and that can move mountains.”
The first movers could be the six leading economies who took part in talks last month hosted by Germany on a “Europe of two speeds” to break decision-making inertia and galvanise the EU economy.
The other five countries were France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands.
If EU leaders needed a reminder of threats to their economic model, data showed on Friday that the bloc’s trade surplus shrank further in December as tariffs weighed on exports to the US and rising Chinese imports crowded out domestic production.
Some of those not invited to the German-led group of six have expressed alarm.
“It is a good idea to threaten member states to agree on some files, but a very bad idea for the future of Europe,” said one EU diplomat.
“Quite simply, it just flies in the face of the unity we like to parade in other areas,” said another.
But a third diplomat said it was clear that plan A was to make progress with all 27 EU members and it was good to have a plan B.
“It’s a hostile world out there. Prosperity is under threat if these bottlenecks continue,” the third diplomat said, noting that Europe already operated at different speeds elsewhere.
Certain flagship EU projects, including the euro currency and the Schengen passport-free travel zone, allow groups of EU countries to move ahead, while others can join later.
The Schengen area, for example, does not include Cyprus or Ireland, but does include four non-EU countries. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has 24 EU participants and the Unitary Patent system 18.
As recently as December, EU leaders agreed to provide a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, but the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia opted out.
Karel Lannoo, CEO of the Centre for European Policy Studies, said the EU should still try to advance as 27, not “become more concentric circles”.
“You need to advance as Europe, and that’s what we need to see also in the context of the threats from the United States and Russia,” he said.
The European Policy Centre think-tank said a coalition of the willing was no silver bullet, noting that talks on creating the Capital Markets Union had been long held up by disagreements among big EU members, including France, Germany and Italy.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the topic of a coalition of the willing was not part of the official discussions, but diplomats said it was raised on the sidelines.