The Munich Security Conferencealso known as the Davos of the defence, started this Friday with strong support for Ukraine Faced with the war started almost a year ago by the Government of Vladimir Putin. An endorsement that both the French president, Emmanuel Macronlike the German chancellor, Olaf Schölzthey asked “intensify” as long as it takes with the aim of promoting a counteroffensive by the kyiv Army to force Russia to sit at one negotiating table under “believable” conditions. This is also the plan that tries to promote USA, as explained by a high-ranking US official to a small group of journalists, reports Efe. Washington’s idea is to continue providing weapons to Volodimir Zelensky and imposing sanctions to eventually drag Putin into a dialogue.
“We must intensify our support and our effort to help the resistance of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian army and allow them to launch the counter-offensive that will allow credible negotiations with the conditions chosen by Ukraine,” Macron stressed. “We will support Ukraine with what is necessary and for as long as it is necessary,” Scholz said.
But this scenario is still far away, as Macron himself admitted during his speech at the forum in the Bavarian city. “Today there can be no dialogue because we have a Russia that has chosen war“said the president, who before the war and during the first months of the war maintained an open communication channel with Putin in the vain hope of convincing the Kremlin leader to lay down his arms.
“Speed up”
Zelenski was in charge of opening the Munich meeting, to which no Russian representative has been invited in this edition, with a video speech in which he asked his Western allies “speed up” the delivery of aid. “Our life depends on it,” he stressed, before resorting to the biblical myth of David and Goliat to refer to the conflict and its repercussions. “There has been talk of David fighting Goliath on the banks of the Dnieper. I have to correct something: David is not only on the banks of the Dnieper, but also on the banks of the Spree and the Seine. We all have to defeat Goliath together. David did it with a slingshot and we need the slingshot to be stronger,” he said, referring to the rivers in Berlin and Paris.
A few weeks ago, the president of the Slavic country managed to extract the commitment of his allies to command combat tanks and in the last few days he is redoubling the requests to achieve fighters, a request that for now has fallen on deaf ears. Precisely the delivery of armored leopard was one of the issues that generated friction on the first day of the Security Conference. After the pressure he had to endure to finally accept the delivery of these armored vehicles (both his own and those of other countries, which needed the authorization of the Government of Berlin), Scholz called on Friday to order those countries that have not yet have detailed their contribution.
Military assistance to Ukraine “implies that all those who can provide such tanks actually do so,” snapped the foreign minister, whose government has committed to sending 14 Leopards that are scheduled to arrive in Ukraine by the end of March. This is the case of Poland, which was particularly incisive in the claim to Berlin and has not yet announced the delivery date of the 14 committed tanks.
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On another issue that Macron and Scholz agreed on was the need to strengthen security in Europe, although the Frenchman was much more forceful. The chancellor showed his willingness to comply with the NATO’s goal of devoting 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) to the defense budget, while the French president urged European governments to invest “massively” in security to anticipate possible threats. “If we want peace, we must provide ourselves with the means” necessary, he said.
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In this context, the leader of the Élysée asked to “take into account” the nuclear factor. “French deterrence occupies a specific position that contributes in Europe, as well as that of the United Kingdom, to the overall strengthening of the Alliance’s security. Obviously, our allies also play an essential role in this regard and I want us to reaffirm the nuclear nature of the Atlantic Alliance,” he said.
In the Munich Security Conference, which will last until Sunday, 40 heads of state and 75 foreign and defense ministers participate. It is one of the main international forums on foreign and security policy and has been held in this German city since 1963. In this edition, the absences of Iran and Russia stand out, the latter country that will not have representation in this forum for the first time in 20 years. On behalf of the United States, the Vice President, Kamala Harrisand the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkenwho, according to some US media, could take advantage of the meeting to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and relax the tensions between the two powers unleashed after the incident with the supposed spy balloon.