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MUNICH – Cut through the haze of ominous pronouncements emanating from the main stage of this weekend’s Munich Security Conference about Western solidarity and common purpose, and one can’t help but see more than a hint of foreboding lurking beneath the surface. Can’t pay attention.
Even as Western leaders congratulate themselves on their generosity toward Ukraine, the country’s armed forces are short of ammunition, equipment and even men. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who conference opened On Friday, Kiev urged the free world to send more help — and fast. “We need momentum,” he said.
US Vice President Kamala Harris lashed out at Russia on another front accused Country of “crimes against humanity”. “We all agree. On behalf of all victims, both known and unknown: Justice must be served,” she said.
In other words, the Russian leader may be looking at Nuremberg 2.0. This will certainly bother some in Moscow, especially those in the past to remember what happened to Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic and his entourage.
The outlook in Asia is no less dire. Taiwan remains on edge, as the country tries to gauge China’s next move. Here too the news from Munich was not reassuring.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “What is happening in Europe today could be happening in East Asia tomorrow.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did nothing to refute that narrative. “I assure the audience that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory,” Wang said. told the conference When asked about Beijing’s designs on the self-governing island. Taiwan “has never been a country and it will never be a country in the future.”
For some attendees, the vibe in the overcrowded Bayerischer Hof hotel, where the gathering takes place, echoed that of 1938. That year, the Bavarian capital hosted a conference that resulted in the infamous Munich Agreement, in which the European powers ceded the Sudetenland to Germany. Misguided efforts they believed could keep the peace.
“We all know there’s a storm brewing outside, but here inside Bayerischer Hof everything seems normal,” wrote Andrew Mikta, dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the Marshall Center in Germany. “It all sounds so routine, and yet it all suddenly changes when a Ukrainian lawmaker bluntly tells the audience that we are failing to act fast enough.”
Only defense contractors are smiling at this year’s security conference. Arms sales are booming by all accounts.
Even Germany, which in recent years perfected the art of explaining its failure to meet its NATO defense spending commitment, promised to reverse course. In fact, German officers were trying to outdo each other in proving just how sloppy they had become.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz swore off To “permanently” meet NATO’s defense spending target for individual members of two percent of GDP.
Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, a Social Democrat like Scholz, called for even more, saying that “with barely two percent it will not be possible to meet the tasks facing us.”
Keep in mind that as early as last year, prominent Social Democrats were still calling for the US to remove all of its nuclear weapons from German soil.
In other words, if even the Germans have woken up to the dangers of the world’s current geopolitical situation, this might be the moment to really start worrying.