BERLIN, Jan 22 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump's shift in rhetoric on Greenland and urged Europeans not to be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership.
Merz was addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a day after Trump abruptly stepped back from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland and ruled out the use of force.
The U.S. threats had risked the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades and a global trade war.
"Despite all the frustration and anger of recent months, let us not be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership," Merz said in a sweeping speech covering global security and European competitiveness.
"We Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust is on which NATO rests. In an age of great powers, the United States, too, will depend on this trust. It is their — and our — decisive competitive advantage."
Europe and the United States must repair the trust on which the transatlantic alliance was built, he said.
Germany was among the seven European countries that sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland last week as Denmark said it was pressing on with plans for a larger and more permanent NATO presence to secure the island.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers and Sarah Marsh in Berlin)
