Friedrich Merz said a relationship reset is crucial to helping Europe overcome its security and economic “challenges”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a new partnership with France to help Europe face its "huge" security and economic challenges.

At a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday, Meers outlined a shared vision of deeper European integration, calling for a "new push for Europe" based on closer France-German cooperation.

“If France and Germany stood closer than they used to be, we would have to deal with these challenges,” Meers said. “That’s why Emmanuel Macron and I agreed to the new Franco-German push for Europe.”

One of the measures discussed was to strengthen the Flanders-Germany Defense and Security Commission, Meers said.

"We want to better coordinate our support for Ukraine, maintain our defense plans and procurement projects more closely within this framework, and find new answers to the strategic questions of security and defense policy," Meers added.

The meeting is a time of constant concern for Europe's reliability in Russia's war in Ukraine.

In a joint column published by Le Figaro, Merz and Macron confirmed their joint commitment to “contributing to just and lasting peace (in Ukraine) under the support of the security and strong security assurances of the United States.”

Macron said the two countries will quickly track new defense capabilities.

The visit to Paris was a tough start for Merz’s principal as he needed to make two unprecedented rounds of votes in the Bundestag, suggesting between his center-right CDU/CSU coalition and the Social Democrats at the center level (SPD), which suggests the basic division within the new council coalition.

But in a move toward a more unified German foreign policy, Melz now presides over a government where the principal and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are held by the same political party for the first time in years.

He also promised to establish a National Security Council within the principal, aiming to improve coordination of foreign, development and defense policies.

Meers will travel to Poland later Wednesday. Speaking to the German state broadcaster ZDF, Melz added that he intends to work with Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to shape a tougher EU immigration framework.