Transatlantic Ties Under Threat At Munich Security Conference (Worthy News Focus)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MUNICH, GERMANY (Worthy News) – An emotional outgoing chairman of Germany’s Munich Security Conference (MSC) suggested Sunday that the transatlantic relationship is under threat amid mounting U.S.-Europe tensions.

Christoph Heusgen closed the three-day gathering by praising European leaders, especially Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, “for speaking out” about a speech made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the conference.

“With [convenor] Ewald von Kleist, this conference started as a trans-Atlantic conference. [Yet] after the speech of Vice President Vance on Friday, we have to fear that our common value base is not that common anymore,” Heusgen stressed.

Vance’s speech criticized Europe for alleged suppression of free speech and a lack of democracy, prompting pushbacks from various European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Heusgen, 69, a long-term advisor to former chancellor Angela Merkel, showed visible emotion as he handed over to former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg in the Bayerischer Hof hotel to applause from the participants.

Stoltenberg said Heusgen had made the key international conference “stronger, broader, and better” over his three years in the position.

After serving for the next six months as finance minister in Norway’s transitional government, Stoltenberg will take over the full-time organization of the MSC ahead of the next conference in February 2026.

61st MSC

Yet Heusgen didn’t leave quietly as the 61st MSC focused Sunday on the future of Europe and security architecture issues as well as accelerating the EU accession of Balkan countries.

The debate came after European leaders were caught off guard by statements by U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration on ending the war in Ukraine and improving European defense.

“I can announce that I will propose to activate the escape clause for defence investments. This will allow member states to substantially increase their defense expenditure,” the EU’s executive European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday.

She spoke as EU member states need to invest 500 billion euros ($525 billion) in defence over the coming decade, and leaders are struggling to agree on common instruments while war is raging in Ukraine.

Following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Trump said he and Putin would likely meet soon to negotiate a peace deal over Ukraine.

Trump later assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he would also have a seat at the table. But his administration made clear there would be no seat for the rest of Europe, angering European leaders.

In addition, U.S. President JD Vance told the MSC audience that Europe is “retreating” from its core values. “The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within: the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America,” Vance said on Friday.

EUROPE EXCLUDED?

Earlier, a statement from Trump implied Europe and Ukraine could be excluded from negotiations with Russia, while his defense secretary called it “unrealistic” for Ukraine to join NATO or keep its pre-2014 borders.

Yet, in a controversial move, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said membership was not off the table for Ukraine. “This is not about the peace deal. Some think it has to be part of a peace deal, but it’s not part of the outcome. We have to take it step by step, have to make sure the deal ensures Putin will not try again,” he told reporters.

The diplomatic wrangling prompted Zelenskyy to say: “Let’s create the ‘armed forces of Europe.”

He added: “We must build the Armed Forces of Europe so that Europe’s future depends only on Europeans and decisions about Europe are made in Europe,” Zelenskyy.

In the words of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “Let’s make Europe great again.”

The MSC was held amid concerns over those suffering from a nearby car-ramming attack that killed two people and injured nearly 40 others.

A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested immediately after the attack on Thursday, according to officials.

Prosecutors announced Friday that the attacker appeared to have had “an Islamic extremist” motive.

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