US Most Important Partner to Europe, Says German Foreign Minister

Johann Wadephul said that Europe’s relationship with the United States is still functioning, despite tensions over Greenland.

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul attends a press conference after a meeting at the Quai d'Orsay, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Paris, on July 18, 2025. Abdul Saboor/Reuters

Germany “will always be closer to the United States” than to China, the country’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said on Feb. 2.

“I would reiterate that, still, the United States is the most important partner to Europe and to Germany, still our security for Europe depends on the United States, the Article 5 commitment, and the nuclear umbrella,” Wadephul told the audience of a lecture hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.

The German foreign minister said that despite recent disputes with the United States over the control of Greenland, this is still the case.

“This is the case, and this is functioning day by day, and we are working very closely together in NATO structures,” he said.

Wadephul was referring to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all members.

The U.S. nuclear umbrella is a security guarantee to protect non-nuclear-armed allies from nuclear threats—a protection that also deters those allies from developing defensive nuclear weapons themselves.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been urging European nations to take greater control of their own security, as the United States pivots away from the continent.

The Pentagon on Jan. 23 released its new National Defense Strategy, which outlines the United States’ prioritization of homeland defense, including “defending America’s interests throughout the Western Hemisphere,” according to the document.

It also said that it would encourage partners in other parts of the world, including Europe, to take primary responsibility for their own defense “with critical but limited support from U.S. forces.”

Europe Must ‘Step up’

Last week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said that Europe must “step up” to meet its own security needs, recognizing that the United States “is setting its sights abroad and beyond Europe.”

However, Kallas emphasized the United States’ role in NATO.

“Let me be clear: We want strong trans-Atlantic ties,” she said in her keynote speech at the annual conference of the European Defence Agency in Brussels on Jan. 28. “The U.S. will remain Europe’s partner and ally. But Europe needs to adapt to the new realities. Europe is no longer Washington’s primary center of gravity.”

Days earlier, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told EU parliamentarians that they cannot defend Europe without U.S. support, underscoring the importance of the transatlantic partnership.

“If anyone thinks here, again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming. You can’t. We can’t,” Rutte told the European Parliament’s defense committee in Brussels on Jan. 26.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, 2026. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Rutte also cautioned against a European army, saying it could lead to duplication, and suggested that countries would need to recruit additional soldiers to outfit such a force, in addition to recruiting for their own national militaries.

He said that European countries should continue to take responsibility for their own defense but within the transatlantic security framework.

“For Europe, if you really want to go it alone, and those who you are pleading for that, forget that you can ever get there with 5 percent. It will be 10 percent,” Rutte said, referring to defense spending targets as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

NATO allies agreed in 2025 to boost the defense spending target from 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent by 2035.

“You have to build up your own nuclear capability,“ Rutte said. ”That costs billions and billions of euros. You will lose, then in that scenario, you would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the U.S. nuclear umbrella. So hey, good luck.”