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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday welcomed US President Donald Trump's pledge not to use military force to take Greenland, while warning that Europe must strengthen its own ability to project power as global conditions become increasingly dangerous.
Merz described it as "good news" that Trump said he would drop the February 1 tariffs he had pledged to impose on European countries over Greenland. However, he warned that Washington was "radically reshaping" its foreign policy, a shift he said was unsettling the foundations of the international order. Speaking during an address at the World Economic Forum here, Merz said, "This new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength, and when it comes to it, on force." He added, "It's not a cozy place." Against this backdrop, Merz urged European countries to act quickly to boost defence spending and strengthen economic competitiveness in response to what he described as "tectonic" changes in the global order. At the same time, he called on European nations not to abandon the transatlantic relationship and NATO. "Despite all the frustration and anger of recent months, let us not be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership," Merz said, adding, "We Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust on which NATO is based is." Merz also warned of the risks posed by a new era of great-power rivalry. "The world where only power counts is a dangerous place, first, for small states, then for the middle powers, and ultimately for the great ones," he said, adding, "I do not say this lightly. In the 20th century, my country, Germany, went down this road to its bitter end. It pulled the world into a black abyss." Setting out what he called a three-part strategy for Europe to assert itself, Merz said the continent must invest "massively" in defence, improve competitiveness and maintain unity. He also stressed the importance of securing new trade agreements to boost Europe's economic strength, pitching the European Union against Trump's tariff-driven approach. "Europe's trade ambitions are crystal clear," Merz said, adding, "We want to be the alliance offering open markets and trade opportunities." Europe, he said, "must be the antithesis to state-sponsored unfair trade practices, raw material protectionism, tech prohibition and arbitrary tariffs. Tariffs again have to be replaced by rules, and those rules need to be respected by trading partners". Merz said both Germany and Europe have "wasted" growth opportunities in recent years, including through delays in implementing an EU trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries. He criticised the European Parliament's decision this week to send the accord for judicial review, warning that the move could delay the deal by up to two years and increase pressure on the European Commission to provisionally apply the agreement. Merz said there is "no alternative" to the deal. "We will not be stopped," he said, adding, "Most likely, this agreement will provisionally be put in place." (ANI)
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