Munich (Germany), 17 Feb. The Munich Security Conference (MSC) opens this Friday in this southern German city with Ukraine as the central focus of interventions and debates by senior government officials and heads of state or government .
With regard to the meeting, which is due to start in the early afternoon, the strike at the airport of the Bavarian capital is however planned and the organizers have already warned that it could affect the content of the forum due to the planned shutdown of the Munich Airfield and others from Germany.
US Vice President Kamala Harris is already in Munich, while on the European side, among others, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has also been announced, while his Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will be on the Ukrainian side. In Munich, the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, and the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, are also expected.
The MSC will reward Sweden and Finland for their “historic” decision to apply for NATO membership and as a “boost” for their integration process, despite Turkey’s objections. The Kleist Prize will honor the two Nordic countries which, following the aggression against Ukraine, broke with decades of military neutrality to seek entry into the Atlantic alliance.
For the second time in a row, the MSC will not have representatives from the Russian government. Last year, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was asked not to attend, which at the time was interpreted as a sign that the decision to launch the invasion of Ukraine had already been made. plug.
The exclusions are a clear symptom of the new winds blowing through Munich in the aftermath of the war. Traditionally, the MSC had sought to provide, outside of public events, a platform for informal encounters where possible diplomatic solutions to certain crises could be explored.
Alongside the question of Ukraine, debates on other aspects are planned, such as those devoted to the so-called “global south”.
Besides the conference, which is an informal and private forum, many bilateral and multilateral meetings usually take place, taking advantage of the high number of senior officials who meet in Munich.
We already know, for example, that there will be a meeting of G7 foreign ministers on Saturday, convened by Japan, as well as another in which Macron, Scholz, Sunak and Kamala Harris will participate devoted to Ukraine.
By contrast, the MSC will have protests against it this year, organized by small groups – left and right – that oppose military support for Ukraine. Some of them blame the United States and NATO for the war because of the alliance’s eastward expansion. ECE
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