February 15, 2026 | 04:58 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz cautioned that Europe must stand on its own and arm itself. Merz stated that U.S. leadership can no longer be taken for granted.
“The leadership claim of the U.S. is being challenged, perhaps already lost,” Merz said at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, as reported by Politico. He expressed the starkest assessment from Berlin about a world increasingly defined by great power competition. “In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat.”
The German leader argued that the global system itself may have already collapsed. “The international order based on rights and rules … no longer exists in the way it once did,” he said.
Merz also drew lessons from Germany's history. “We Germans know a world in which might makes right would be a dark place,” he said. “Our country has gone down this path in the 20th century until the bitter and dreadful end.”
He also confirmed discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron about a European nuclear deterrent.
The message echoed earlier statements in Munich from U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Elbridge Colby, calling for 'NATO 3.0.'
European allies bear a much larger share of the defense burden while Washington prioritizes other regions.
According to Colby, Washington wants “vigorous, capable, more self-reliant European allies.” He added that America has long shouldered a highly disproportionate burden.
Merz indicated that Berlin has already prepared scenarios with a smaller U.S. footprint in Europe. “We Europeans are taking precautions. In doing so, we arrive at different conclusions than the administration in Washington,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged on Thursday evening when departing for Munich that the old world has disappeared. “we live in a new era in geopolitics,” he said.
“It’s going to require all of us to sort of re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be,” Rubio said, as quoted from CNN. He stressed that Europe is important to the U.S.
“I think they want honesty. They want to know where we’re going, where we’d like to go, where we’d like to go with them,” he added.
Read: 'Threat to World Peace': How Germans See the US Now
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