MUNICH — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz revealed Friday that he has held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on joining Paris' nuclear deterrence program, the latest indication that America's traditional European allies are feeling forced to go it alone.
The remarks by Merz, opening the Munich Security Conference in Germany, show how some European countries don't want to rely on the U.S.' nuclear umbrella. France has an estimated 290 nuclear warheads, whereas Germany never developed its own program as its military was neutered after World War II.
Merz said he would continue to observe NATO agreements, but warned that Washington also risked losing if the alliance were allowed to fade.
"Even the U.S. will not be powerful enough to go it alone," he said, switching from German to English. "Being part of NATO is not only Europe's competitive advantage, it's also the United States' competitive advantages. So let's repair transatlantic trust together. We the Europeans are doing our part."
Speaking after Merz's tough opening speech, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walz pushed back on criticism against the Trump administration's pivot to the Western Hemisphere from Europe. He said more Americans were dying because of drugs coming from Latin America and South America than in wars.
Walz said NATO and the United Nations are stronger, and that more global conflicts had been resolved, because of President Donald Trump.
Fending off pushback from the rest of the panel, which included Europe's top diplomat Kaja Kallas, Waltz also presented them with a "Make the United Nations Great Again," or "MUNGA," hat.
Asked about the conference as he departed the White House, Trump told reporters he has a strong relationship with NATO leaders. The president added that it was because if his push that member countries had increased their defense spending in the alliance to 5% of their gross domestic products, a reference to the alliance members agreeing in June to more than double that spending by 2035.
Last year, the Munich Security Conference set the tone for a growing rift between the U.S. and Europe. This year, it brings together many top European officials with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others.
Merz is one of 15 heads of state or government from European Union countries organizers expected would attend.
The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference’s tradition, there will also be a large delegation of members of Congress.
“Transatlantic relations have been the backbone of this conference since it was founded in 1963 ... and transatlantic relations are currently in a significant crisis of confidence and credibility,” conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters earlier this week. “So it is particularly welcome that the American side has such great interest in Munich.”
At last year’s conference, held a few weeks into Trump’s second term, Vice President JD Vance stunned European leaders by lecturing them about the state of democracy on the continent.
A series of Trump statements and moves targeting allies followed in the months after that — including, last month, his later-abandoned threat to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO member Denmark.
With Rubio heading the U.S. delegation this year, European leaders can hope for a less contentious approach more focused on traditional global security concerns, though a philosophically similar one. Rubio will face a heavy lift if he wants to calm the waters, however.
“In the end it’s about trust: do we trust each other as partners and can this lack of trust be repaired?” said Claudia Major, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. “Particularly Greenland has been a fundamental change for Europeans. That one NATO ally threatens another NATO ally has deeply affected European trust in the trans-Atlantic relationship.”
