BERLIN, Feb 10 - RIA Novosti. Horst Telchik, a former adviser and associate of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, told RIA Novosti how he invited Vladimir Putin to the Munich Security Conference in 2007.
"When President Putin took office, I was asked if I would like to talk to him on occasion. Of course, I agreed. So I had the opportunity to meet with him several times in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi. On one such occasion, I personally invited him to the Munich Security Conference, of which I was the chairman. He told me that now he has two invitations, one to a business conference in Davos and one from me. That if he had gone, he would have gone to me first. And he kept his word," he shared in an interview with the agency.
According to him, then in his speech, the Russian leader "raised a number of important issues, such as the planned deployment of American missile defense systems in Romania and Bulgaria, which, in his opinion, were directed not so much against possible Iranian missiles as against Russia."
"Therefore, my assessment of the president's speech to journalists was very simple: both sides - the United States, NATO and Russia - should now sit down together and work out common solutions to the issues raised by President Putin," Telchik said.
Fifteen years ago, on February 10, 2007, Putin spoke at the Munich Security Conference— the largest European and international discussion platform for politicians, diplomats and the military, which is traditionally held in the Bavarian capital. In his Munich speech, he harshly criticized the US foreign policy and the ideas of a unipolar world order, plans for NATO expansion and the deployment of American missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe.
