Hundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, with conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo high on the agenda, alongside simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
It’s the first major global summit for the new administration in Washington under President Donald Trump and comes amid speculation that his America First agenda could presage significant changes in U.S. foreign policy.
US delegation
The U.S. delegation includes Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We are very happy that we will have a strong representation of both the administration of the new American government there, as well as representation from Congress,” said conference chairman Christoph Heusgen.
“And so, the American point of view will also be presented on stage, as will the European point of view, and that of other regions. And then, and that is what Munich stands for, there will be a dialogue, a discussion about the many issues at hand,” Heusgen told Reuters.
Vance is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich.
Ukraine’s war against Russia’s full-scale invasion is about to enter its fourth year. Zelenskyy said this week he shared a “common vision” with the Trump administration.
“Of course, there may be different opinions, but a common vision of the main things — of how to stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and how to give guarantees of security to Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Monday.
‘Unrealistic’
However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine following any ceasefire deal with Russia and ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv. He also described Ukraine’s hopes to return to its pre-2014 borders with Russia as unrealistic.
“European allies must lead from the front,” Hegseth told reporters in Brussels following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
President Trump has made clear he wants a quick end to the war but it’s not clear how that might be achieved. Trump announced Wednesday he and Putin agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict.
NATO allies
Nevertheless, U.S. allies sense a change in tone from the president since his inauguration last month, said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based research group.
“Though Trump has said a lot of things to worry a lot of people on tariffs, on trade, on Gaza and so on, he hasn’t yet said anything particularly crazy from a European point of view about Ukraine or NATO. He hasn’t repeated his threat to pull out of NATO. He said the Europeans should spend more [on defense] but most of us agree with him on that. He hasn’t said he’s going to cut off all aid for Ukraine,” Grant told VOA.
“One of the issues that will come up in Munich is to what extent the Europeans should help to keep the peace if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine. And certainly, President [Emmanuel] Macron of France, and to some degree the British, and possibly Friedrich Merz who may well be the next German chancellor, are all in favor of sending troops to keep the peace in Ukraine, if there’s a peace to be kept,” Grant added.
Ukrainian hopes
On the streets of Kyiv, some Ukrainians expressed hope that the Munich conference will strengthen Ukrainian ties with the Trump administration.
“We hope that this personal meeting between President Zelenskyy and Vice President Vance will give an opportunity to convey the real situation of what is happening today in the Russian-Ukrainian war,” sociologist Asked Ashurbekov told The Associated Press.
Ukrainian journalist Borden Semeniuk was less optimistic.
“The country has been living in expectation for three years, and because of this, belief in this expectation has decreased. … I would like to see some relief from the situation. But it is impossible to live in the hope that it will 100 percent happen at this meeting,” Semeniuk told AP.
Russia and Iran have not been invited to Munich. Last year, the conference organizers said their governments had not shown a serious interest in negotiations.
China
The official report of the Munich Security Conference cites the “multipolarization of the international order” — a theme welcomed by China, which is sending a large delegation to the summit.
“The report shows that the international community’s acceptance of a multipolar world is on the rise. … China has always called for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, the U.S Navy sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait, prompting an angry response from Beijing.
China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent months. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that someday will be reunified with the mainland, while Taipei considers the island a sovereign state.
Secretary of State Rubio is due to hold a trilateral meeting with allies Japan and South Korea while in Munich.
Gaza
Conflict in the Middle East will also top the agenda at the Munich conference, amid fears that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is at risk.
President Trump’s repeated suggestion that Palestinians should leave Gaza will overshadow the conference, said analyst Charles Grant.
“I don’t see it happening because you can’t just eliminate 2 million people and put them nowhere at all,” Grant said.
“But I think most European governments are hoping that Trump will just push this for a while, and he’ll get bored of it and talk about something else – and hope he will kind of move on and forget it. But so long as he does talk about it, it’s very disruptive and creates a lot of ill-feeling between European and many other governments, and the U.S.,” Grant told VOA.
The conference will also host sessions on the conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate change, energy security and artificial intelligence also feature on a packed agenda across the three-day conference.