IRIA News

The annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) began on February 17, 2023, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the top agenda. Leaders, diplomats, and representatives from 96 different countries world came to participate in the three-day event that would conclude on February 19.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened the conference with their respective talks. Zelenskyy spoke through a prerecorded message at the start of the conference as he urged the western allies to speed up sending weapons to defeat the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian president told the global leaders assembled in Munich that dithering and delays in providing weapons to Ukraine also threaten their security.

Zelenskyy linked Ukraine’s battle against Russia to the biblical fight between David and Goliath and said that while Ukraine had David’s courage, it still needed the sling with which to defeat “the Russian Goliath.”

Zelenskyy’s message found immediate support from the following speakers, especially the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Both leaders pledged their commitments to military support for Ukraine and reaffirmed that long-term backing for Kyiv’s cause was the only way to get Moscow to back down.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Putin’s “revisionism” would not prevail and called on allies who were able to do so, to send battle tanks to Ukraine. “Those who can send such battle tanks should really do so now,” Scholz said during his speech.

Last month, Germany pledged to provide Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine while also approving exports from third-party stocks. While rallying further support for Ukrainian forces, Scholz predicted that there is no short-term solution for the ongoing war. “I think it’s wise to prepare for a long war,” Scholz told the conference.

French President Emmanuel Macron took the podium after the German leader and said there needed to be readiness for “prolonged conflict” in Ukraine while calling on EU members to invest substantially in defense spending. “We absolutely need to intensify our support and our effort to the resistance of the Ukrainian people and its army and help them to launch a counter-offensive which alone can allow credible negotiations, determined by Ukraine, its authorities and its people”, Macron said.

“I don’t believe a second in regime change,” says French President @EmmanuelMacron at #MSC2023. “We have to find a way to force #Russia to come back to the table under the conditions of Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/5bcrlZnSKd

— Munich Security Conference (@MunSecConf) February 17, 2023

The French president also said that it was not the time to attempt dialogue with Russia as it ramped up hostilities in the east of Ukraine. “It is not the time for dialogue because we have a Russia which has chosen war, which has chosen to intensify the war, and which has chosen to go as far as committing war crimes and attacking civilian infrastructures,” Macron added.

Top diplomats from the US and China meet on the sidelines

Nearly 50 lawmakers from both major U.S. political are also attending the annual security conference to affirm bipartisan support for Ukraine. Vice President of the U.S. Kamala Harris is also present in Munich to attend the event. She met with the German Chancellor and French President as well as the leaders of Sweden and Finland to discuss their accession into the NATO alliance.

One of the most significant meetings on the sidelines of the conference was between the top diplomats from the U.S. and China. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi, who is on a week-long European trip making stops in France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and Russia. This was the first face-to-face meeting between the officials from China and the U.S. since the spy balloon incident took place earlier this month.

According to the press released by the U.S. state department, two diplomats were ‘direct, candid’ in their talks amid tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the downing of a suspected Chinese spying balloon.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China against providing “lethal support” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and condemned the violation of United States airspace by an alleged Chinese spying balloon as he held rare talks with Beijing’s top diplomat. just hours before the meeting, Wang Yi referred to the balloon incident and scolded Washington for its ‘hysterical’ reaction to it that to the dispute between the two countries resulting in cancellation on Blinken’s anticipated trip to China.

Glad to join my #G7 counterparts for a Foreign Ministers Meeting at the Munich Security Conference. We reaffirm our commitment to defending the core principles of the @UN Charter, for the benefit of not only Ukraine, but the entire international community. pic.twitter.com/jmsQDUA3ob

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 18, 2023