Official Russian representatives will not participate in the forum
MUNICH, February 16. /tass/. The situation in Ukraine, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the future of NATO, as well as security in Europe will be the main topics of the opening Munich Conference. The forum, which is taking place this year for the 60th time, will bring together hundreds of politicians and experts from dozens of countries. The conference will be opened by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Among the invited guests are US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtaye.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, are expected from the EU. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will also arrive in Munich. A meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries will be held on the sidelines of the conference. Germany will be represented by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Official Russian representatives will not participate in the forum for the third time in a row. If in 2022 the difficulties were caused, among other things, by the pandemic, then the Russian Federation was not invited because of the Ukrainian conflict. According to the head of the forum, Christoph Heusgen, Russia allegedly does not demonstrate "serious readiness for negotiations on Ukraine." "That's why we said that we are not inviting the Russian government, but Russians from non-governmental organizations," he told the DPA news agency ahead of the conference.
On December 29, 2022, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, criticized the "anti-Russian orientation" of the forum, calling its current format "a continuation of the Western mainstream to demonize a number of countries."
Discussion of new aid for Ukraine
It is obvious that the participants of the conference will discuss the continuation of military assistance to Ukraine. The West has repeatedly said that Kiev needs additional air defense and artillery shells, and the Ukrainian authorities regularly talk about the lack of ammunition. Shortly before the conference, the head of the German Defense Ministry, Boris Pistorius, promised to increase the supply of artillery shells for Kiev three to four times. He said that in the budget of Germany in 2024, € 3.5 billion was allocated for the production of ammunition. According to him, the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine "will eventually be resolved, including on assembly lines."
However, the total amount of funding for Ukraine - from all Western partners - has not yet been determined, since the assistance cannot be agreed in the United States in any way. By the way, Pistorius has scheduled several meetings with representatives of the Republican Party in Munich in the hope of persuading them to lift the blockade. Stoltenberg, meanwhile, said that the consequences of the current delay for Ukraine are already noticeable. The Europeans, without the Americans, will not be able to support Kiev in the same volumes, as Scholz has repeatedly said. In this regard, we should expect solidarity from the Munich participants rather than any new solutions.
Trump, NATO and the EU army
The future of NATO will be discussed through the prism of statements recently leaked to the media by former US President Donald Trump. He allegedly said that if any country of the bloc does not pay contributions to collective defense, it will not receive protection. This statement has been commented on by many Western politicians in recent days, they called such words irresponsible and dangerous. Chancellor Scholz called for no doubt that NATO will defend every inch of its territory. Probably, such assurances will once again be voiced in Munich from the lips of representatives of the bloc countries.
Trump's words provoked another discussion - about the need for Europeans to strengthen their own security regardless of the North Atlantic Alliance. For example, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said that the EU now more than ever needs its own defensive structure. It is obvious that the negotiations of the European leaders will be devoted to this issue in Munich.
The deputy chairman of the European Parliament, German politician Katarina Barley, directed this topic in a slightly different direction - she admitted that the European Union, in theory, could think about developing its own nuclear weapons program. Other politicians were reluctant to develop the idea. For example, Pistorius proposed to stop publicly discussing this issue, given the seriousness of the issue. "Regarding atomic weapons, I can only say that this is a very complex discussion that should not even be started because of one statement by Donald Trump, which did not even touch on this topic. The nuclear debate is the last thing we need right now. This is a debatable escalation that we don't need," Pistorius said in Brussels on Wednesday. According to him, Europeans need to stop looking at the participants of the election campaign in the United States "like a rabbit at a snake."
Israel's self-defense and humanitarian obligations
The final day of the conference will traditionally be devoted to the Middle East, specifically the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which escalated after the Hamas attack in October 2023. Germany recognizes the right of Israelis to self-defense, but insists on "respecting humanitarian law" by conducting an operation in the Gaza Strip.
Berbok, who returned this week from another trip to Israel, acknowledged the complexity of the situation, calling it the "squaring of the circle." The minister also warned against the operation in Rafah, stating that the citizens who found shelter there "cannot simply disappear into thin air." Germany is convinced that the conflict can be resolved only according to the two-state formula with security guarantees for both sides. It is in this context that the discussions on Sunday are likely to take place.
About the conference and security measures
The forum will last until Sunday, February 18. Increased security measures have been taken in the Bavarian capital these days. As in previous years, the area around the Bayerischer Hof Hotel, where the conference is being held, will be cordoned off. Only participants, service personnel and the press will have access to it.
A total of 20 demonstrations will take place in the city on Friday and Saturday. Traditionally, various organizations hold protests against NATO and arms supplies in parallel with the conference.
The Munich Conference was founded in 1962 by the German publicist Ewald von Kleist as a "meeting of representatives of the defense departments" of NATO member countries. Since 1999, it has been attended by politicians and military personnel from Central and Eastern European countries, as well as business representatives. The forum traditionally hosts numerous informal and personal meetings of politicians who discuss new initiatives in the field of security policy.
The Ewald von Kleist Prize, which has traditionally been awarded since 2009 for efforts to achieve peace, combat climate change and overcome conflicts, will be presented at the conference. In 2024, it was awarded to the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and the special representative of the President of the United States on climate issues John Kerry.
Russia's participation in the past years
Russia has participated in the forum since the late 1990s. Traditionally, the Russian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In 2016, Dmitry Medvedev, who was Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation at that time, came to Munich for a conference.
In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a keynote speech on foreign policy at the conference, which caused an international outcry. The speech of the head of state was devoted to the vision of Russia's place and role in the world, taking into account the realities and threats of that time and the unacceptability of the unipolar model in modern politics.
Putin then stressed that "unilateral, sometimes illegitimate, actions have not solved a single problem, and often become a generator of new hotbeds of tension," "certain norms of some states, primarily the United States, overstep their borders and are imposed in other states." The President noted that "international law should be universal" and pointed out that "a balance of interests is needed."