World leaders will meet this week for the Munich Security Conference, which comes on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid growing tensions between China and the United States. about espionage allegations.
The annual three-day conference will bring together US Vice President Kamala Harris, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The event, which begins on Friday, comes just days before February 24, the first anniversary of the dispatch of Russian troops to Ukraine, which brought war to Europe for the first time in decades.
As Ukraine prepares for Moscow’s new offensive, leaders should renew their commitment to support Kiev for as long as it takes to repel Russian aggression.
Conference chairman Christoph Heusgen said that a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin “drilled a hole in civilization”, the conference was faced with the question of how to maintain “an international order based on rules”.
“Will there be an order in the future in which the force of law will prevail? Or will there be an order in which the law of the strongest will prevail? “, he asked a question during a press conference.
The agenda of the conference will be “what to do with people, political leaders, who do not respect the rule of law”, he said.
US-China tensions are expected to figure prominently at the Bavarian conference.
Relations soured after Washington shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in early February.
Beijing insisted the balloon was for civilian use and hit back on Monday, accusing the United States of flying American balloons over Chinese territory, which Washington was quick to deny.
Heusgen says he doubts Wang Yi would use his speech at the conference to say, “Sorry, that was our spy balloon.”
At the same time, Heusgen expressed hope for negotiations on the sidelines of the conference.
“I have already noted that we will have a high-ranking American delegation,” he said.
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have soured in recent years on a range of issues, from human rights in Hong Kong to economic policy and the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
