US not powerful enough to go it alone', Merz tells Munich conference

"America acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may have already lost its role as global leader, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, warned Donald Trump at the opening of the Munich Security Conference on Friday. He also urged the US president to recognise it is still possible to exhaust Russia economically and militarily, to the point where it is willing to come to the negotiating table over Ukraine."

"I fear we must put it even more bluntly. This order, however imperfect it was even at its best, no longer exists in that form. Switching to English to ram home his key message to America, Merz said: 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."

"At last year's conference, held a few weeks into Trump's second term, the US vice-president, JD Vance, stunned European leaders by lecturing them about the state of democracy and freedom of speech on the continent a moment that set the tone for the last year. A series of statements and moves from the Trump administration targeting allies has followed, including Trump's threat last month to impose new"

America acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may have already lost its role as global leader. It remains possible to exhaust Russia economically and militarily until it is willing to negotiate over Ukraine. The old international rules-based order no longer exists in its previous form. In the era of great-power rivalry even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. NATO represents a competitive advantage for both Europe and the United States. Transatlantic trust needs repair and revival. The Munich Security Conference opened with top global security figures and many European leaders present.

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