Merz, the leader of the European Union’s most populous nation and its biggest economy, said he wasn’t surprised by the substance of the strategy as it was largely in line with a lecture U.S. Vice President JD Vance gave to European allies in Munich in February.

Parts of the document are understandable, but “some of it is unacceptable for us from the European point of view,” he told reporters in the western German city of Mainz.

“That the Americans want to save democracy in Europe now, I don’t see any need for that,” Merz said. “If it needed to be saved, we would manage that alone.”

He added that the new U.S. document “confirms my assessment that we in Europe, and so also in Germany, must become much more independent from the U.S. in terms of security policy. This is not a surprise, but it has now been confirmed again. It has been documented.”

Merz said that Vance’s speech earlier this year had “set off something in me as well, and you can see that today in our defense spending.”

Merz’s government, in office since May, has enabled higher spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt — adding to an effort to bolster Germany’s military that has been underway since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022.

Under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, NATO members, including Germany, agreed in June to a massive hike in the alliance’s defense spending target.

“In my talks with the Americans, I say: ‘America first is fine,’ but ‘America alone’ can’t be in your interest. You need partners in the world too,” Merz said Tuesday. “And one of the partners can be Europe. And if you can’t do anything with Europe, then at least make Germany your partner.”