Name: German Chancellor Merz tells security conference, US is not powerful enough without NATO | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-13T17:12:33.000Z
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And we begin in Munich, Germany, where the world's biggest security conference is now underway.

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz kicked off the proceedings about an hour ago with a plea to rebuild ties between Europe and the United States.

Transatlantic relations are at a low point, with the Trump administration's policies damaging decades of trust.

Let's hear more now from what the German chancellor said.

For three generations, trust amongst allies, partners and friends has made NATO the strongest alliance of all times.

Europe knows deeply how precious this is.

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's also the United States competitive advantage.

So let's repair and rewife transatlantic trust together.

We, the Europeans, we are doing our part.

I'm joined here in the studio now by our political correspondent, Matthew Moore.

that part was in English, Matthew, because it was directed at Donald Trump, the President of the United States.

I thought this was a message saying you cannot go it alone, you have to be part of NATO.

But there was a broader message within this speech and that was the world as the world order as we know it, the post war rules based world order is no longer.

The United States has potentially squandered its claim to leadership in that world.

He was laying blame really squarely at the doorstep of the United States and the current president, wasn't he?

He said, he remarked that on JD Vance's speech last year and rejected some of the things that J.D.

vance had said, this idea of a culture war, that freedom was under threat here in Europe, free speech.

Specifically, he rejected protectionism and tariffs the Trump administration had been using.

And the message really was, we can be part of NATO as in Germany, Europe, we're willing to do our part, we're willing to spend to build the biggest conventional army in Europe.

Something that he admitted was something that's quite uneasy for people to listen to, the idea of Germany rearming itself.

If we do it within the foundation of the European Union, we can't go it alone.

He conceded that Germany's history doesn't, will not allow for that.

He talked about four points where Germany really has a program, as he called it, a program for freedom.

Big on the military rear, me taking care of defence.

To put that into two kind of graspable numbers for you, Brent, German army budget in 2021 was 46 billion euros.

This year it's 83 billion euros and that's with another 25 billion euros extra just to buy some, some new equipment.

And that's what Donald Trump has been wanting to see, right?

But he that even within the charters that created the European Union, there is an article that is similar, if not almost a carbon copy of Article 5 in the NATO treaty which says, you know, an attack on one is a track attack on all of it.

I mean, were you surprised that he pulled that out?

I mean, that was, I guess, reinforcing the notion that we're all in this together.

Yeah, he pulled that out because he wanted to make the point.

We've had this commitment to each other, but we haven't lived up to that commitment.

There were some blunt words for the US Administration.

There were also some home truths we haven't lived up.

We've talked the talk, but we haven't backed it up with serious military and economic power.

So that was part one of his program was about reinvesting in military and defence industry in Europe, but

also on strengthening European Union, getting rid of red tape, bureaucracy, putting a focus on trade deals with other countries.

And then he talked about part three was about.

But about the United States and saying, look, and

this is where he actually got an applause was when he talked about that rejection of the MAGA culture wars that the United States is engaged in.

That got a round of applause in the room.

Where else can we look to build partnerships around the world?

He said that was a very important part of European revival and renewal.

And we know that Donald Trump has three more years in the White House and then his time will be over.

So did you, did you find an end game in this speech at all?

I mean, where is all of this supposed to lead Europe?

Is the goal to be 100% militarily independent from the United States?

I mean, no one thinks that that's even possible, Right?

I mean, if you just look at the nuclear deterrence question here in Europe, Germany cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Brent signed up two treaties that prohibit that.

But he talked about the nuclear deterrence.

And that's been a debate that's been going on here in Europe for a number of years now he'd said that we've begun discussions, me, Friedrich Metz, I've begun discussions with Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, about this nuclear deterrence.

There are lots of discussions about whether Germany's Taurus missiles could be used in a potential nuclear deterrent there in the program.

So there's a lot of discussions going on.

NATO is the, is the strongest and most important alliance that we've ever built.

And we need to continue with the focus obviously on the threat coming from Russia.

I mean, I was struck that there was not more focus on just the emergence of China as a possible superpower.

He did say that it could soon be as militarily strong as the United States, but

there wasn't really any talk there about Europe and the United States need to join forces if we want to be a counterweight to the Chinese giant.

Interesting, wasn't it, that he didn't do that?

I think the reason for that is that this was a speech really trying to address the elephant in the room, wasn't it?

The era of post war rules based order is over.

We're now in this, now in this era of great power politics.

What's our role as Germany, as Europeans?

And so I think that for that reason it was much, very much about what we can do as Europeans, rather than saying, okay, what is China doing?

How can we, how can we compete with China?

As he said, Europe is still coming out of this long vacation from responsibility that he mentioned at the start of his speech.

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German Chancellor Merz tells security conference, US is not powerful enough without NATO | DW News

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