Outside the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in the southern German state of Bavaria, the venue for the 60th Munich Security Conference, as world leaders meet amid a host of pressing concerns, from those from Ukraine to Gaza. A German police officer inspects a car for explosives. If Donald Trump is elected US president in November, the future of NATO will change dramatically. Photo credit: Anna Szilagyi/EPA/EFE
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking ahead of his speech at the conference, said former US President Donald Trump said the only path to lasting peace was to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. tried to downplay concerns about what had happened. File photo via NATO/UPI
February 16 (UPI) — The international community's key annual security summit opens in Germany on Friday, with the Ukraine-Gaza war, rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, NATO expansion and the prospect of a second Trump administration in Washington at the top of the agenda. It became.
The three-day Munich Security Conference brings together approximately 60 heads of state and senior officials to discuss emerging and ongoing security concerns around the world. It comes days after the former US president said he would not protect NATO members who did not participate in the meeting. Promises for defense spending against invasion by Russia and others.
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Attendees included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, among others. tried to downplay President Trump's comments, saying political differences are nothing new.
“The United States has made it very clear to all NATO allies, and today at the defense ministers' meeting, that we support NATO commitments,” he said. told BBC Radio.
“We are increasing our military presence in Europe, and our NATO allies have more troops and military presence in the eastern part of the alliance.”
Stoltenberg stressed that the alliance is made up of 31 democracies and has always had disagreements and disagreements, such as the Suez crisis in the 1950s and France's withdrawal from NATO in the 1960s, but Trump admitted that his statement was dangerous.
“The idea that we don’t protect each other makes us all less safe.”
Stoltenberg, speaking at the conference, urged allied members to continue supplying Ukraine with arms and ammunition for “lasting peace” and said defense investments would require high-quality, sophisticated supplies from countries such as Bavaria. He emphasized that there is an added benefit of creating high-skilled jobs. Where the new facility will manufacture Patriot missiles.
“This will require expanding the transatlantic industrial base to increase deliveries to Ukraine and replenish its own stocks. We need to produce more with speed.”
in Post to X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a packed two-day schedule that included talks with his partners, French President Emmanuel Macronan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. New agreements and security councils.
Macron and Zelenskiy are expected to sign a new security cooperation agreement between the two countries later on Friday, adding to a series of bilateral commitments some NATO allies made in July in exchange for joining the defense pact. This is the second part of the agreement.
“It's a new security structure and a new opportunity for Ukraine. We are making every effort to end the war as soon as possible on fair terms for Ukraine and ensure a lasting peace,” Zelenskiy said. ” he wrote.
