German Chancellor Friedrich Merz set the tone for a fraught Munich Security Conference on Friday with a declaration that the old world order no longer exists and that the EU must shed its excessive dependency on the US.
“This dependence was self-inflicted, but we now cast off this state as soon as we can,” Mr Merz said.
President Emmanuel Macron of France confirmed the two sides and other European states were in the late stages of talks on securing nuclear sharing.
The French leader called for respect of Europe's security role while warning Washington that there could be no peace in Ukraine without the buy-in of Europe.
“We have to be respected, we have done a lot and we will do more,” he told a separate Munich session on Friday. “No peace without the Europeans. I want to be very clear: You can negotiate without the Europeans, if you prefer, but it will not bring a peace at the table.”
He added Europeans must “reshuffle and reorganise” the security infrastructure of Europe while a resentful Russia will still face the continent at the end of the conflict.
“We have to be the one to negotiate this new architecture of security for the for Europe for the day after, because our geography will not change,” the President said.
Mr Merz called for a new, healthy relationship with America in a world in which Washington is preoccupied with “its own need” to match Chinese statecraft. This year's sessions amount to a retort to the US, whose Vice President JD Vance shocked the conference to the core last year with a speech lacerating his country's allies.
The German leader said Beijing had paved the ground for its stronger position with “strategic patience” and the result was a big-power politics world in which US dominance was challenged and “possibly lost”.
He discussed “the world in trouble” with Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, who is offering a deep defence alliance with Europe a decade after the Brexit split.
“There’s no UK security without European security,” said Mr Starmer. “There’s no European security without UK security.
“So we have to work together.”
Self-defence
The German Chancellor said European leaders' prime task was to accept the new reality.
“We are not at the mercy of this world,” he added. “We can shape it.”
If any of the 27 members of the EU come under attack, it is responsibility of the others to ensure self-defence. Upgrading this capacity is priority number one for the members and this capability could act as a pillar within Nato, not as a replacement.
He warned the US there were departure points between the two sides that would not be bridged. Europe would not follow the US culture war free-for-all and there were areas where US freedom of speech ended.
Europe was not a place of tariffs and protectionism but offered a belief in free trade as well as a readiness to stick to climate agreements and the WHO, from which the US has withdrawn.
Mr Merz highlighted a free-trade pact with South America and India, and said others would follow. He looked forward to a new set of partnerships that elevated other countries, including the Gulf nations, where he recently visited regional leaders.
At the same time, he pointed to the divide with Washington over Greenland and the solidarity of the Europeans. In offering a changed but still functioning relationship, Mr Merz told President Donald Trump that even the US would not be “powerful enough to go it alone”.
Transatlantic reset
For Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign affairs chief, embracing the new reality means making an accommodation with a world of wars.
“Take a step back and think why the old order was put in place, it’s because there wouldn’t be any wars,” she said. “Now we are here and we have a lot of wars. That’s clearly where we are now.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the world described by the German Chancellor had already disappeared for many countries, suggesting the Europeans were the last to realise. He said that within Europe “there was for a long time an attachment to symbolism rather than facts on the ground”.
Wolfgang Ischinger, the chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a former German ambassador to the US, said participants would not mince words for the US administration.
“This is a time to be serious,” he said. “We need to be honest about our differences, but we should seek to help organise a constructive transatlantic reset, if that is possible, this weekend.”
UN tension
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the panel that Mr Trump was trying to ensure the burden of security was fairer, as the White House called on Europe to increase its defence spending.
“The American people have always supported this rules-based order with their tax dollars since the end of World War II,” he said.
He objected to the idea that America was pushing the world over the brink, saying it was pulling the situation back from a spiral into chaos.
Mr Walz said the Trump administration would apply the same pressure on the UN as it had to force Nato countries into commitments to raise defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, a doubling over a decade. “We need to put the UN on a diet,” he said. “We are going to reform the UN.”
That drew a challenge from Ms Kallas, who said the majority of countries in the world wanted a rules-based order to govern international relations. “If we are talking about reforming the multilateral system … we should respect that all states are equal,” she said.
G7 Middle East
Munich will also see the first face-to-face meeting of the G7 foreign ministers under the French presidency in 2026.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will use the meeting to address the idea of “regional integration” in the Middle East. A focus on converging interests is expected to see the group try to find common language on turning rivalry into co-operation.
