Leaders gathered in Munich faced Putin’s unwavering determination to disrupt the world order despite sanctions and containment efforts.
Russia’s recent gains in Ukraine, Navalny’s suspicious death, and Putin’s potential space-based nuclear weapon plans raised concerns at the Munich Security Conference.
“Long term in this case means three to five and maximum 10 years — it is really urgent,” Bulgaria prime minister Nikolai Denkov said.
Europe worried about US support, slow military modernization, and the urgent need to bolster defenses against Russia’s growing threat.
The lack of concrete commitments and urgency in responses left many feeling underwhelmed and disappointed, highlighting the need for Europe to prioritize defense readiness to deter aggression.
“Kamala Harris empty, Scholz mushy, Zelenskyy tired,” the director of Italy’s Institute of International Affairs, Nathalie Tocci, said. “Lots of words, no concrete commitments.”
“I feel underwhelmed and somewhat disappointed” American Council on Germany president Steven Sokol said. “There was a lack of urgency and a lack of clarity about the path forward, and I did not see a strong show of European solidarity.”
“European defense was a possibility before, but now it’s a necessity,” retired Italian general Claudio Graziano said.
“We have to achieve more” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “We might reach 3% or maybe even 3.5%,” he said. “It depends on what is happening in the world.”
“This is 30 years of underinvestment coming home,” French defense analyst François Heisbourg said.
“What really provokes an aggressor is weakness,” Estonia prime minister Kaja Kallas said. “But if we do more for our defense, it will act as a deterrent. People around Putin would say that, you know, you can’t win. Don’t take this up.”
“I think our friends and partners were too late in waking up their own defense industries,” foreign minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said. “And we will pay with our lives throughout 2024 to give your defense industries time to ramp up production.”
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