MUNICH, Germany — On paper, the Americans are getting what they’ve long demanded.

A Europe that spends much more on defense and is much less reliant on Washington for its security. But Donald Trump may not like what American pressure is creating.

Leader after leader from Europe took to the podium of the Munich Security Conference on Friday and talked about boosting military budgets and reframing the transatlantic alliance as a “NATO 3.0.”

But then they followed that with hard-edged appeals to European patriotism and calls for the continent to boost its own arms, space and tech sectors to be less dependent on outsiders — including the United States. 

Emphasizing what’s on offer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz slipped into English to press home the point. Speaking directly to American delegates in the hall at the summit he said: “Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe’s competitive advantage, it’s also the United States’ competitive advantage. So let’s repair and revive transatlantic trust together. We, the Europeans, are doing our part.”

But they also underlined that Europe will become a power in its own right, able to stand up both to Russian aggression and to American threats.

“We have to accelerate and deliver all the components of geopolitical power: defense, technologies and derisking to all the big powers to become less dependent,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a barn-burning speech that extolled the advantages of the European model and the European way of life. 

The EU should have more pride, he said, and not believing in the union is a “huge mistake,” he added.

Americans in Munich underlined that they are happy with increased defense spending as the U.S. refocuses to concentrate on its own hemisphere and the Asia-Pacific.

The U.S. wants “vigorous, capable, more self-reliant European allies,” said Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, adding America had long carried a “vastly disproportionate share” of the burden. He singled out Germany for special praise for its “historic, tremendous shift” in defense spending.

That’s a marked difference from the tone last year, when U.S. Vice President JD Vance blew up the Munich conference with his no-holds-barred attack on European values and politics. 

Now, both sides are saying that they remain committed to NATO. But the last year — from Vance’s speech to Trump’s threat to subsume Canada, his disparagement of allies that fought alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and especially his repeated calls to annex Greenland — has left its marks.

The European-American relationship is like an old married couple that isn’t getting divorced — but is moving into separate bedrooms. 

A new deal

Armed with a hard-edge sense of realism, Europeans are offering a new transatlantic deal: Respect and treat us as trusted partners and we will boost our defenses, share the security burden and become credible military allies in an increasingly perilous world where “the international order based on rights and rules … no longer exists in the way it once did,” Merz said.

He warned that in a dangerous new era of great power politics, even the U.S. won’t be powerful enough to go it alone. But he also had criticism for Europe, blaming the bloc for having slipped into “self-inflicted dependency” on America. “No one forced us into this excessive dependency on the United States in which we have found ourselves recently.”

Other European leaders, suggesting coordination among them, also stressed the mutual benefits of the postwar alliance, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. 

As leaders gathered in Munich, he wrote on X that the Western alliance is far too important to be allowed to fall apart. “The relationship between the U.S. and Europe is wounded, but should be maintained,” he wrote, adding, “We need to be honest about the fact that our relationship has suffered a blow. This does not at all mean we should abandon the transatlantic relation.”

EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius also talked in terms of reshaping the Western alliance, playing down any shift in transatlantic relations following Trump’s recent threats of annexing Greenland. Speaking at the POLITICO Pub, he said there’s an opportunity for the bloc to take charge of its defense capabilities.

“We took for granted that transatlantic relations means the U.S. will be in Europe and spend its resources here,” Kubilius said, but he also repeated his call for a European rapid reaction force of up to 100,000 troops able to replace American soldiers if they’re called home.

Europeans also underlined that they will continue backing Ukraine with cash and weapons while American support under Trump trickles to almost nothing. Macron stressed that there can be no agreement to end the war without taking Europe into account.

“Today only Europe gives money to Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the POLITICO Pub.

Attention is now turning to whether the more positive tone will be maintained when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a more traditional conservative foreign policy realist — speaks Saturday to open the second day of the summit.

A change of tone

NATO chief Mark Rutte was optimistic, telling reporters that Rubio would likely use his much-anticipated speech to “continue to press the Europeans to keep on taking more of a leadership role” in the alliance but insisting that the U.S. wasn’t looking to ditch its defense commitments. 

“It is my expectation that it will only help for the U.S. to be even more anchored inside NATO,” if Europe steps up, he said, adding he had “every confidence” in what Rubio will say. 

Speaking at the POLITICO Pub, Rutte heaped praise on Trump for getting Europe to spend more on defense, saying he noticed a change when attending this week’s meeting of alliance defense ministers.

“I felt a shift in mindset where Europeans not only saying, ‘Hey we’re not only going to spend much more’ … I felt a shift in mindset in Europeans saying, ‘We need to take the lead in NATO,’” he said.

Before setting off to Germany, Rubio underlined that the alliance will continue. The futures of American and Europe “have always been linked and will continue to be … so we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like,” he said.

But there are possible flash points ahead, and European leaders drew lines in the sand when it comes to trade tariffs and Make America Great Again efforts to sculpt European politics in a Trumpian image by supporting populist parties. 

“The culture war of the MAGA movement is not ours,” Merz said. “Freedom of speech ends here with us when that speech goes against human dignity and the constitution. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade.” 

In his speech, Macron underlined how Europe differs from a Trump-led America on everything from free speech to tech regulation and respect for science.

“This Europe will be a good ally and partner for the U.S., it’ll be a partner that is respected and we have to be respected, we have done a lot and we will do more,” Macron said.

Jordyn Dahl, Victor Jack, Laura Kayali and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed to this report.