Germany's defense minister criticized the US administration on Saturday for its "go it alone" approach in foreign policy, saying it risks damaging NATO and strengthening adversaries.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Boris Pistorius said that in an era of great power rivalries, both the US and European countries need a strong NATO alliance to address growing security challenges.
"The alliance needs to make sense for all members. Even the United States cannot act all alone in today's world of emerging great powers. It needs allies," he said. "But our alliance also needs to make sense for Europe. It depends on predictability of actions and reliability of the American commitment."
Pistorius criticized US President Donald Trump's insistence on taking over Denmark's autonomous territory Greenland, as well as Washington's exclusion of European countries in Ukraine peace talks with Russia.
"Questioning the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a NATO member state. Excluding European allies from negotiations that are crucial to the security on the continent. All this damages our alliance and strengthens our adversaries," he said.
Pistorius also responded to an earlier speech by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who defended the Trump administration's foreign policy approach and criticized the UN and other global institutions as ineffective. Rubio emphasized that American leadership alone had successfully ended conflicts or initiated peace processes in recent months.
"Yes, our international organizations have failed to solve crises and conflicts. But the answer cannot be for a great power to go it alone," the German minister said, adding that such an approach might yield short-term results but would not work in the long-term.
"There is a much better way: Reforming and reinvigorating international organizations-just as Marco Rubio pointed out this morning, too-so that they deliver what is crucial: peace and security," he said.
