behind the public praise of Trump<\/a>, European leaders\u00a0are quietly girding for a future in which the transatlantic alliance is no longer the bedrock on which the continent\u2019s defense and economy stand.<\/p>\n\u201cThe U.S. remains our most important partner,\u201d Merz said Monday, according to a transcript of his speech. \u201cWe are ready for close coordination and cooperation. But it is becoming apparent that this partnership will be less self-evident. It will be more issue- and interest-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relationship with the U.S. going forward will hinge on \u201cour strength as Europeans,\u201d Merz said, adding that to cultivate that strength, Europe needs to seek new alliances around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must be even more proactive than we have been so far in forging new partnerships around the world and expanding and strengthening existing ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Germany would seek cooperation \u201cwherever possible\u201d with China on issues like climate policy, increasing \u201csystemic rivalry\u201d with Beijing means Europe must look elsewhere to \u201cdiversify our raw material and trade chains in the interests of strategic sovereignty,\u201d the chancellor added.<\/p>\n
That means Europe needs trade agreements and closer partnerships with South American countries as well as India, Indonesia and Mexico, but also \u201cbeyond G20 countries,\u201d including in Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But in recent months, Merz has tried to build a close relationship with Trump, praising the U.S. president\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[2740,521,1395,6215,473,32,805,1945,1824,730,8262,2132,8106,811,1201,6862,657,49,978,659,333,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-407864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-cooperation","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-foreign-policy","15":"tag-friedrich-merz","16":"tag-germany","17":"tag-india","18":"tag-indonesia","19":"tag-mexico","20":"tag-raw-materials","21":"tag-security","22":"tag-trade","23":"tag-trade-agreements","24":"tag-ukraine","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-vladimir-putin","29":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115168826186687698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}