THE GUARDIAN: Need for greater military autonomy also accepted, says report for Munich Security Conference, which takes place this week
Europe has come to the painful realisation that it needs to be more assertive and more militarily independent from an authoritarian US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms and values, a report prepared by the Munich Security Conference asserts.
The report sets the scene for an all-out ideological confrontation with the Trump White House at the high-level annual meeting of security policy specialists, which starts on Friday.
In a now infamous speech to last year’s MSC, the US vice-president, JD Vance, claimed European elites were suppressing free speech and “opening the floodgates” to mass migration. The address marked the moment Europe realised the Trump administration would no longer be a reliable trading and security partner.
Since then European leaders and Donald Trump’s team have waged a series of running battles over topics including the US push to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia, Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, and a series of protectionist US measures ranging from tariff barriers to inward investment bans.
The divide was starkly set out in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month by the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, who warned of a rupture between the US and its western allies.
Vance’s assessment of Europe’s decline was reinforced in the latest US national security strategy, which accused European leaders of overseeing “civilisational erasure”. More recently, Trump disparaged the courage with which European members of Nato fought in Afghanistan, remarks that caused deep offence among Europe’s military leaders. » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Monday, February 9, 2026
