Volodymyr Zelenski, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron open the Munich Security Conference
The Munich Security Conference (MSC) opens on Friday with a video message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and speeches by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, reports Agerpres.
The annual meeting in Bavaria, where current defense and security topics are discussed, is attended by guests from 96 countries. The main topic on the agenda of this year's conference is the war in Ukraine, which marks one year since its launch on February 24. For the second time in a row, no representative of the leadership of the Russian Federation will participate in the MSC. Last year, there was an invitation in the name of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who decided not to attend, a gesture that at the time was interpreted as a signal that the decision to launch the Russian invasion of Ukraine had already been made.
This year's edition is chaired for the first time by Christoph Heusgen, former foreign policy advisor to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He explained his decision not to invite a Russian delegation by saying he did not want to give Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government a platform for their propaganda.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz will have a meeting in which they will address the situation in Kosovo.
Later, the two leaders will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, in the so-called format of the Weimar Triangle.
MSC 2023 will be attended by more than 450 decision-makers from around the world, including heads of state, prime ministers, ministers, international personalities and representatives of non-governmental organizations and the business environment, journalists and university professors.
