German Foreign Minister Johann Waddefull said on Monday that recent statements by US government officials had caused irritation within NATO and that the Munich Security Conference was an opportunity to overcome differences, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
“This alliance is also under pressure. There is alienation, there is irritation because of some of the things we hear from Washington. We need to discuss this here together. "We want to define our common interests and the importance of NATO," Johann Wadeful told German broadcaster ADR, speaking from Munich.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would have the opportunity to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich as Russian strikes left thousands of people in Ukraine without power, the Guardian newspaper reported.
A year after US Vice President J.D. Vance shocked the assembled dignitaries with a verbal attack on many of the US's closest allies in Europe, Rubio plans to take a less polemical but philosophically similar approach when he addresses this year's conference tomorrow, US officials said.
Before leaving for Germany last night, Rubio used reassuring words, describing Europe as important to Americans. "We are very closely linked to Europe," he told reporters. The US Secretary of State also made it clear that business as usual would not continue, saying: "We are living in a new era in geopolitics and that will require all of us to rethink what that looks like".
The war in Ukraine will be on the agenda of the Munich conference, and French President Emmanuel Macron, who is also traveling to Germany, said he hoped to resume talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Macron said on Tuesday that he did not expect to speak to Putin in the coming days and that European countries must first agree on what they want from Russia. "This is not a matter of days, it takes preparation," the French leader told reporters after talks by European Union leaders.