German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned of “a deep rift” between Europe and the United States, arguing that the latter “will not be powerful enough to go it alone.”

By Humeyra Pamuk, Gram Slattery and Andrew Gray MUNICH, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Secretary of State Marco Rubio cast the United States as the "child of Europe" in a message of unity on Saturday, offering some reassurance as well as levelling more criticism at allies after a year of turmoil in transatlantic relations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio applied a velvet glove to the Trump administration’s still-clenched fist during his high-profile speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, offering some reassurance to uneasy European leaders that the US remains committed to their long-standing partnership but without backing away from its underlying demand that they change course on a number of fronts.

Colby, Deputy Secretary of Defense and key figure in the new National Strategy of the Trump Administration, will present this new phase of the Organization at the meeting of Defense Ministers this Thursday.

Publicly at least, the Trump administration is doing much less at NATO. A year ago, Hegseth warned that America’s security priorities lie elsewhere and that Europe would have to look after itself, and Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

European leaders braced for a combative Munich Security Conference on Friday, with Germany’s Friedrich Merz noting starkly that the international world order “no longer exists” – one of the few points of agreement between the fractious allies in the transatlantic alliance.

First, it must accept that it needs its own version of the Monroe Doctrine —one that clearly delineates its sphere of influence, covering the EU member states, associated territories such as Greenland, the Overseas Countries and Territories, and likely also the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries.

A fter World War II, peace-loving Sweden began working on a nuclear bomb to stave off a feared Soviet invasion. But in the 1960s, the Scandinavian nation scrapped the program under pressure from the United States, whose nuclear arsenal has shielded Europe for about 80 years.

European leaders expressed relief at the tone of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks, but they made it clear that the trans-Atlantic rift remained.