52nd Munich Security Conference

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The 52nd Munich Security Conference took place from February 12-14, 2016. 600 international guests attended the event, including 30 heads of state and government, 70 foreign and defense ministers, the directors of various intelligence services and 700 journalists from 48 countries.

greeting

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger , described the central topics of the conference in his welcoming speech. Ischinger warned that the international order was in the worst shape since the end of the Cold War . He described the outlook as "bleak" and urged the international community, and particularly Europe, to step up their cooperation efforts.

Opening speeches

For the first time, the defense ministers of Germany and France , Ursula von der Leyen and Jean-Yves Le Drian , opened the conference together. In her speech, Minister von der Leyen described the challenges in connection with the European refugee crisis . She explained that helping refugees is a humanitarian duty and also complies with applicable law. The Defense Minister reported that the Bundeswehr, as part of a NATO unit in the Eastern Mediterranean, is participating in the fight against smugglers and continues to contribute to their integration in Germany by training refugees in civilian professions. In this context, von der Leyen emphasized that the influx of refugees as a whole must be reduced in order to be able to concentrate aid on those actually in need of protection. In his part of the opening speech, Le Drian described the pressing problems of the war in Syria and international terrorism . Against the background of the terrorist attacks in France , he called for the fight against the terrorist militia Islamic State to be intensified . At the same time, the minister reiterated that a cease- fire could only be achieved in Syria if Russia stops bombing the country.

subjects

Conflict between NATO and Russia

Le Drians emphasized the importance of the understanding that the Syria Contact Group, which met in the run-up to the conference, had previously reached. According to this arrangement, a ceasefire in Syria should come into effect within a week. This agreement was of particular importance due to the fact that, despite the politically tense situation between NATO and Russia, all participants in the contact group had agreed on this goal.

During a speech on the second day of the conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained the situation between the West and Russia from the perspective of NATO. He called the Russian approach an attempt to destabilize and intimidate the western security order and the western-oriented neighboring states of Russia. In response to this strategy, Stoltenberg reaffirmed the solidarity of the alliance among NATO members and emphasized the readiness of the alliance to defend the alliance. At the same time, he advocated examining the restart of talks within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council . Stoltenberg emphasized: "We don't want a new Cold War with Russia".

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during the 52nd Security Conference

The tension between the West and Russia has been the subject of numerous debates. The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev provided another occasion . His speech was sometimes understood by participants to mean that Moscow and Russia were convinced that the West and Russia had "slipped into a new Cold War". Medvedev had lamented a "fashion of Russophobia" and stated that from the Russian point of view the West had broken off the dialogue with Russia and treated his country arbitrarily. He criticized NATO's deterrent doctrine and assumed that the sanctions against Russia were aggressive. Despite these allegations, the Prime Minister announced that Russia was working on a "European peace union" and that they had gathered in Munich in the interests of European security. He announced a constructive role for Russia in the Syria conflict and declared Russia's participation in the fighting in the country with a high number of IS fighters who came from Russian territory and are "not allowed to return". He also stressed that there was no evidence of alleged Russian attacks on Syrian civilians. He criticized the Western euphoria over the Arab Spring as naive and asked where the hoped-for democracy was. In contrast, political developments in the Middle East are responsible for the rise of IS. He called on the Syrian opposition to negotiate with Syrian President Assad . At the same time, he rejected a distinction between IS and other groups, because all groups regarded by Moscow as terrorists should be fought equally.

In a debate between presidents of neighboring Russian states, Poland and Latvia called for a strengthening of NATO and a greater leadership role for the Americans in the alliance in connection with Russia's actions. The Latvian President Dalia Grybauskaitė declared that Russia was already starting a "hot war". The President of the European Parliament , Martin Schulz , who also took part in the debate , warned against attempts by the Russian Federation to drive a wedge into the EU. The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko finally turned to the absent Russian President Putin and emphasized that, in his opinion, it was by no means a civil war in Ukraine , but rather the consequences of Russian aggression and Russian occupation, which were an expression of a confrontation between different value systems. He also warned against Russia's intention to destabilize and divide Europe through the support of populist parties.

US Secretary of State John Kerry during the 52nd Security Conference

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Prime Minister Medvedev's allegation that NATO and the EU refused to cooperate with Russia and treated the country like an enemy. He also expressed his government's anger at Western demands to end Russian air strikes on moderate rebels. The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier finally expressed his conviction that NATO and Russia were not in the Cold War. According to Steinmeier, it is important to "keep the EU in tact". If this succeeds, the Foreign Minister continued, much would be gained.

During the conference, a telephone conversation between US President Obama and Russia’s President Putin emerged in which both of them had assessed the results on Syria positively.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said at the security conference that the international community has never faced so many different crises at the same time. The Foreign Minister recalled the situation in 1963, the year of the first security conference in Munich. Back then, Kerry explained, the Cold War was "pretty hot". Nevertheless, the world has overcome the crisis. Kerry described the optimism of the then US President Kennedy , who in 1963 demanded in Berlin to look "beyond the current dangers to the hopes of tomorrow". From this he draws courage for the ongoing war on terror, explained Kerry.

Syria and the fight against IS

Jordanian King Abdullah during the 52nd Security Conference

The situation in Syria and the fight against terrorism was another important topic of the security conference. In this context, King Abdullah of Jordan affirmed that terror is by no means a task solely for the states of the Middle East . The king described the problem as having a European dimension because the Balkans had recently also served as a retreat for IS. In fact, the fight against terrorism is a form of world war that is fought by other means, said the Jordanian king. In his speech, Afghan President Ghani criticized Europe, which had overslept the development of IS. Observers also described Ghani's allegations as an attempt to divert attention from their own failures.

The Iraqi president Haider al-Abadi told of the efforts of his country in the fight against IS and said further efforts to the Iraqi government. In addition to positive developments such as the security situation in Baghdad , which is better than it has been since 2003, the president called the existence of groups no longer under the control of the Iraqi state worrying. He clearly criticized the unauthorized dispatch of troops by Turkey to Iraqi territory. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, attacked Syria's ruler, Assad, and noted that IS was made up of "psychopaths without religion".

Middle East location

US Senator John McCain on the 52nd MSC

During a panel discussion on the situation in the Middle East, the American Senator McCain described the global political situation in clear terms. Due to eroding balances of power, said McCain, the previous world order is in the process of collapse. The Senator accused the West of weakness towards Russia and criticized the diplomatic line taken by US Secretary of State Kerry. This, said McCain, promotes Russian military aggression. He also expressed skepticism about the Syria agreement, which rewards aggression and is another sign of Western weakness, the senator said. It is also not enough to end the refugee crisis, which Russia is using as a weapon against the Western community, said McCain. The Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council , Al Zayani, endorsed the agreement. Norbert Röttgen , Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag , said that Russia had gained the upper hand in the Middle East through its violent actions in Syria. He also spoke out against further concessions by the West in the Ukraine conflict in return for Russian accommodation in Syria. He called it a mistake in 2015 not to set up a security zone for Syrian refugees. The turbulence would have spread across the region. Röttgen called on Europe to take responsibility for its own security. At the conference, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Jaalon criticized the West's lack of a "grand strategy" in dealing with terrorism and the political situation in the Near and Middle East . He reaffirmed Israel's "red lines" strategy towards Syria. Finally, he added that the conflict between NATO and Russia is not a new Cold War, as Russia is acting unilaterally and there is no aggression from the West.

Future of NATO

During a discussion on the future of NATO, Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed his satisfaction with the increased troop strength of NATO in Eastern Europe, but at the same time spoke out in favor of stationing more troops and setting up permanent military facilities. The Foreign Minister called the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act , which restricts the stationing of NATO troops, "invalid" in connection with recent political developments and Russia's aggressive behavior, and called for "equal treatment" with western NATO for troop deployments States. During the discussion, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg stated that NATO had to guarantee the security of all member states and not just the states on the eastern and southern flanks.

North Korean nuclear program

During a panel discussion on China's role in the international community, US Senator Bob Corker , chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations , criticized the Chinese government's inadequate action against North Korea's nuclear armament . Corker accused China of refusing to resolve the nuclear dispute and at the same time delivering sensitive technology to North Korea and Iran . Fu Ying, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of China, denied criticism but expressed her government's anger at North Korea's actions. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also warned against further nuclear armament in North Korea and called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. If this fails, it will be "very, very ugly," warned the Asia expert.

Secret services

For the first time, the heads of important western secret services took part in a public panel discussion at the security conference. James R. Clapper , US National Intelligence Coordinator, Robert Hannigan, Director of the British Secret Service GCHQ , Robert Bertholee, Director of the Dutch Secret Service AIVD and Gerhard Conrad , Director of INTCEN , discussed with Vinton G. Cerf , Internet pioneer and Vice President of Google , on the relationship between security and civil rights. The representatives of the secret services described the global security situation and warned of the high number of potential terrorists from the ranks of the IS. According to Clapper, 6,900 of his 38,000 fighters come from Western states. The terrorist organization used high-tech methods on the Internet to recruit them and distribute their propaganda. Clapper warned of IS attacks with chemical weapons. He had industrially manufactured chemical weapons and had already used them. The infrastructures in the industrialized nations are also threatened by terrorist attacks in the future, Clapper added. In this context, INTCEN director Conrad referred to the new risks associated with big data . The secret service representatives were unanimous in calling for an improved data exchange between the services. GCHQ boss Hannigan also warned of cyber attacks by IS, but, unlike Clapper, did not speak out in favor of backdoors in encryption programs. In connection with the new transatlantic data agreement " Privacy Shield ", Clapper announced that it should also include protective rights for citizens of other countries. Google Vice President Cerf emphasized that the Internet can only preserve its advantages "if it remains free, worldwide and open and all user freedoms are protected".

Ewald von Kleist Prize 2016

The 2016 Ewald von Kleist Prize was awarded to Christiana Figueres , Secretary General of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , and Laurent Fabius , former French Foreign Minister , at a reception by the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer in the Munich Residence . Both received the award for their role in the adoption of the Paris Agreement , the successor to the Kyoto Protocol , in December 2015. The laudation was given by the UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson . Observers interpreted the particularly small number of participants from the United States at this traditional event as an expression of criticism of Seehofer's trip to Moscow immediately before the security conference.

Situation in Africa

During a panel discussion on the situation in Africa , the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described the lack of prospects for African youth as an important cause of flight and terror. He called for more humanitarian and social engagement in solving crises and stressed that purely military measures will not be successful. Also, the African economic growth of the past few years has only reached a small elite, which has not invested in the development of their countries, Annan added. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud , President of Somalia , reiterated Annan's view and described from his country that many militiamen had joined al-Shabaab for economic reasons . Among the other participants was Salil Shetty , Secretary General of Amnesty International, who accused the West of being largely responsible for the conflicts.

Refugee crisis

During a panel discussion on the refugee crisis, Chancellery Minister Peter Altmeier emphasized the importance of a ceasefire in Syria. Altmaier called for a quota of refugees in Europe and spoke out in favor of housing them primarily in the vicinity of their homeland and providing them with apartments and schools there. The minister also included the transfer of refugees to Turkey or their return to safe countries of origin. He stressed that the crisis could not be solved with national measures. The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey had protected Europe from "overload and criminal risks" by accepting 2.5 million Syrian refugees. At the same time he called for better coordination of international aid. The Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said that in addition to refugees who needed protection, many people came to Europe for other reasons. The Foreign Minister therefore called for the protection of Europe's external borders and the control of people entering the country. According to Koenders, there is no shortage of a European strategy on the refugee issue. But he criticized weaknesses in their implementation. The Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni described the refugee crisis as a "permanent problem". Domestic arguments often prevented a European solution from being tackled. Gentiloni warned that this threatens to become a great danger for the continent.

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ "We are dealing with a kind of Third World War". handelsblatt.com, February 12, 2016, accessed June 15, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b Von der Leyen and Le Drian: Common stage, different priorities. dw.com, February 12, 2016, accessed June 15, 2016 .
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  6. ↑ "We are dealing with a kind of Third World War". handelsblatt.com, February 12, 2016, accessed June 18, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Syria group agrees on ceasefire. Breakthrough in Munich? n-tv.de, February 12, 2016, accessed June 18, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b c A signal for more cohesion should go out from Munich. bmvg.de, February 13, 2016, accessed on June 18, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Depraved conditions. spiegel.de, February 13, 2016, accessed on June 18, 2016 .
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  12. ^ A b carrot and stick from Moscow. «New Cold War». nzz.ch, February 13, 2016, accessed on June 18, 2016 .
  13. ↑ "We are in a new cold war". (No longer available online.) Br.de, February 13, 2016, archived from the original on June 18, 2016 ; Retrieved June 18, 2016 .
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  16. ↑ "Russia wants to sow discord in Europe". zeit.de, February 13, 2016, accessed on June 22, 2016 .
  17. ↑ The dispute over Syria dominates the security conference in Munich. dw.com, February 13, 2016, accessed June 22, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Relations with Russia superimpose debates. deutschlandfunk.de, February 14, 2016, accessed on July 1, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Paris cancels Angela Merkel. tagesspiegel.de, February 13, 2016, accessed July 1, 2016 .
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  32. ↑ The new self-confidence of the secret services. faz.net, February 13, 2016, accessed July 28, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Vinton Cerf - Defender of Freedom ( Memento from July 28, 2016 in the web archive archive.today )
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  41. ^ Laurent Fabius and Christiana Figueres to get Ewald von Kleist Award for Paris. (No longer available online.) Cop21.gouv.fr, archived from the original on October 24, 2016 ; accessed on September 7, 2016 (English).
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  43. ↑ Seehofer does 41 hours of world politics in Moscow. Russia trip. welt.de, February 7, 2016, accessed on September 7, 2016 .
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  46. ↑ Amnesty gives the West considerable complicity in violent crises. wirtschaftsblatt.at, February 14, 2016, archived from the original on February 15, 2016 ; accessed on September 7, 2016 .
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