Europe can no longer completely rely on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today, pointing to bruising meetings of G7 wealthy nations and NATO last week.

Speaking to around 2,000 people in a beer tent in Munich, Merkel neither mentioned US President Donald Trump directly nor the international disputes about defence spending and climate change policy.

But in an apparent reference to Trump's open criticism of major NATO allies and his refusal to back established language on fighting rising global temperatures, Merkel said: "The times when we could completely count on others, they are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days," adding that Europe must take its fate into its own hands.

Merkel also said that Germany stood with Britain and other nations against terror after last week's bombing in Manchester which killed 22 people.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.