US and Europe, no longer kindred souls, enter a marriage of convenience

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUNICH—Ask a European official who attended this weekend’s Munich Security Conference about the state of the trans-Atlantic relationship, and you’re likely to hear metaphors about dealing with a troubled, possibly abusive, spouse. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a less pugnacious message when compared with last year’s Munich conference.

Back then, Vice President JD Vance launched a blistering attack on the governments of Europe’s largest nations and embraced their far-right political opponents. Rubio, by contrast, got a standing ovation after highlighting the importance of trans-Atlantic ties and common history and culture. Yet, though the Europeans and the Trump administration are on speaking terms once again, there are few illusions.

The deep fissure caused by last month’s crisis over Greenland has been papered over, but not fixed. What used to be an alliance of kindred souls is viewed by both sides today as a marriage of convenience, loveless and lacking basic trust. “Now there is a new equation that you don’t really know who is your friend and who is your ally," Kaja Kallas, the European Commission’s head of foreign and security policy, said in an interview in Munich.

Ministers, lawmakers and military leaders who packed Munich’s Bayerische Hof hotel over the weekend acknowledge that the common values that once bound Washington to its European allies aren’t so common anymore. The focus of conversations has now shifted onto the bond that still remains: hard security interests that are less susceptible to ideological rifts. Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, told the attendees in Munich that he isn’t sure that the onetime “hosannas and shibboleths"