The 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) concluded at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, with the primary topic being the conflict in Ukraine.
No Russian officials were invited to the event, the site of President Vladimir Putin’s famous 2007 speech warning against NATO expansion.
On the first day of the event, key attendees included US Vice President J.D. Vance, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Each delivered speeches that centered on the Ukraine conflict and security in Europe. Vance’s controversial address critiqued European leaders, accusing them of being afraid of their own voters. He argued that the primary security issue on the continent is not China or Russia, but rather Europe’s abandonment of its core values.
Ukrainian and US delegations met on the sidelines of the conference, with Zelensky stating that he is ready to move as quickly as possible toward a real and guaranteed peace. He also said he would meet with only one Russian, Putin, but only when he has a joint plan with the US president and Europe.
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14 February 2025
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and US Vice President J.D. Vance have discussed an agreement on access to Ukraine’s minerals, but no deal was struck. “Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelensky wrote on X, adding that he had had a “good meeting” with Vance and that Kyiv was “ready to move… as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace.”
Two members of the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters that “some details” of the mineral agreement still needed to be worked out.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has warned US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference that a “sham peace” in Ukraine would provoke further Russian aggression and threaten Europe’s security.
Baerbock also stated that there would be no cooperation with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in response to the US President Donald Trump’s willingness to allow Russia back into the Group of Seven (G7) nations.
The US delegation at the Munich Security Conference has presented Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky with a document granting Washington rights to 50% of the country’s future mineral reserves. Zelensky “politely declined to sign it,” a Washington Post journalist wrote on X, citing multiple lawmakers.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has insisted on the start of direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, following his talks with Vladimir Zelensky. “It's important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close,” he said.
US Senator Lindsey Graham has said he is proud to have Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as his ally. “I want to tell you and your people you’re the ally I’ve been hoping for all my life. Not one American has died defending Ukraine,” he added.
US Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky have said they had a good conversation on the sidelines of the Munich security conference, with Vance emphasizing that Washington's goal is sustainable peace in Ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations could be a turning point for EU-US relations, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has told the conference “The United States is pushing for a quick peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. They expect Europe to take the lead in securing any agreement that follows. These negotiations can be a turning point for our continent and transatlantic relations. A historic turning point that can go in very different directions,” Pistorius said.
US Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky are now meeting privately on the sidelines of the Munich security conference.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has confirmed that he has US President Donald Trump’s personal phone number, following a call between the two on Thursday. “Yes, he gave me his telephone number,” Zelensky said at an event at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, adding that Trump had told the Ukrainian leader “You can call anytime.”
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has threatened to create his own “NATO in Ukraine” if Kiev does not receive an invitation to join the US-led bloc.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Zelensky stated that Washington never actually intended to invite Kiev into NATO and only spoke about it. Previously, US President Donald Trump had signaled that Ukraine’s membership in the bloc was unrealistic.
Zelensky went on to suggest that Ukraine will need to double the size of its army if doesn’t get into the bloc.
Russia and China have a normal relationship and have established a strategic partnership based on mutual trust and have agreed not to target any third countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference.
Asked if Beijing had considered pressuring Moscow by stopping purchases of its gas in order to help resolve the Ukraine conflict, Wang questioned the practicality of such a move.
“If China does not buy gas from Russia, which country can provide so much gas to meet the needs of the Chinese people? It’s not possible. It’s not safe,” Wang said. He noted that Beijing is opposed to the politicization of economic and trade issues, as such measures have been used against China in attempts to suppress it.
As for the Ukraine conflict, Wang reiterated that Beijing has always advocated a political resolution of the conflict, arguing that sanctions and force cannot “completely solve the issue.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has stressed that the US and China must work together to address current global challenges.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, he emphasized that the world is heading towards multi-polarization, that protectionist policies offer no solutions and arbitrary tariffs produce no winners.
He also stated that if the US continues efforts to bully and suppress China, Beijing is prepared to resolutely counter such moves.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has suggested that the canceled Romanian elections were not democratic, criticizing Bucharest for nullifying the vote results over “flimsy suspicions” of Russian interference and pressure from neighbors.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Vance noted that even if Russia did buy social media advertisements, which he said is fine to criticize, the fact that Romania’s democracy was “destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country” suggests that it “wasn’t very strong to begin with.”
Washington won’t be able to help those in Europe who actively censor their own people, US Vice President J.D. Vance has told the Munich Security Conference.
“I really do believe that allowing our citizens to speak their mind will make [democracies] stronger still,” Vance said. He took aim at the organizers of Friday’s conference, pointing out that they had banned lawmakers representing populist parties from participating.
The vice president suggested that the silencing of populist voices looks more like “old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation.”
Vance went on to claim that while the purpose of the Munich conference was to discuss security, European leaders seem to have forgotten what they are protecting. “There is no security if you are afraid of the voices… of your very own people,” he said, suggesting that most of Europe’s current challenges are of its own making.
“If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” Vance said.
The Trump administration will fight for free speech in Europe, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, claiming that this has been “in retreat” across the UK and the EU.
Vance said that the US under former President Joe Biden was “sometimes the loudest voice for censorship” as it bullied social media companies to censor “misinformation” that eventually turned out to be true and silence people for speaking their minds.
The vice president vowed that the US government under Donald Trump will do “precisely the opposite” and that even if it doesn’t agree with someone’s views, it will “fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reiterated that his recent remarks about Ukraine being unlikely to join NATO as part of a peace deal with Russia were to “introduce realism to the conversation.”
Speaking in Warsaw during a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart on Friday, Hegseth repeated that this reality includes the fact that Ukraine is unlikely to return its pre-2014 borders as part of a settlement, nor have US troops deployed to the country.
At the same time, he stressed that there are no limits to what could be agreed upon during the negotiating process between Russia, Ukraine, the US, and their leaders.
“The biggest threat to Europe is from within,” US Vice President J.D. Vance has said at the Munich Security Conference.
He noted that while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that a reasonable settlement can be achieved between Russia and Ukraine, Europe faces a much bigger threat.
”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. 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, stressing that the EU needs to do “more than talk about democratic values,” but actually “live them.”
“Let’s not be a deer caught in the headlights,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged European leaders in light of the recent wave of changes made by US President Donald Trump.
Speaking following a meeting with US Vice President J.D. Vance, Steinmeier said the Trump administration has “no regard for established rules” and that the US leader has a “very different world view to ours.”
“We cannot change that. We have to accept that and we can deal with it,” Steinmeier added, stressing that “we must not allow ourselves to be paralyzed” by the wave of new policy announcements from Washington.
Berlin “got the message” that it has to increase its defense spending, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the Munich Security Conference on Friday after meeting with US Vice President JD Vance, Reuters has reported.
Vance had previously stressed the US expects Europe to play a bigger role in ensuring its own security. Steinmeier said that Germany has already “massively increased its security spending” and recognizes Washington’s requirement that all European NATO members increase their defense spending beyond 2% of GDP.
“We got the message,” he said. “The 2% target... dates from a different time, a different threat situation. A decade later, we will have to spend significantly more than we agreed back then,” Steinmeier added. He also noted the shifts would include a reduction of US troops in Europe.
There can be no normal cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has told US Vice President J.D. Vance during a meeting at the Munich Security Conference, according to Reuters.
The German diplomat also reportedly spoke out against establishing a “sham peace” in Ukraine, claiming that it would lead to further aggression and weaken the US.
Europe will have to step up in ensuring its own security in the future, US Vice President JD Vance has said in a meeting with German officials at the conference.
“Europe is a very important ally for the US, but we also believe it is important to recognize that in the future, Europe is going to have to take a bigger role in its own security,” Vance said, noting that Germany, being the EU’s leading economy, will have a major role to play.
Taking Ukraine’s NATO membership off the table is a “mistake,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said at the Munich Security Conference. His comments came in response to US President Donald Trump claiming earlier this week that Kiev’s membership in the bloc would not be part of any peace deal with Russia.
“I think it was clumsy,” Pistorius said, suggesting that the issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO as well as territorial concessions to Russia should have been discussed at the negotiating table.
NATO membership for Ukraine has never been tied to any sort of peace deal, the bloc’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, has said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Asked to reaffirm NATO’s commitment to support Ukraine on its path towards membership, Rutte emphasized that the priority right now is to establish “a peace deal that is lasting.” He claimed that no one has ever said that Ukraine’s membership in NATO should be part of a peace deal, stressing that this has “never been promised.”
Ukrainian allegations that Russia attacked the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are a provocation by Kiev ahead of the Munich Security Conference, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed.
She suggested that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky couldn’t allow himself to come to Munich with empty hands, alleging that Kiev always needs some sort of “toy rattle” to distract the participants of international conferences.
Zakharova pointed out that Moscow has repeatedly warned that Kiev would commit attacks and stage various provocations at nuclear facilities in order to garner international support and lobby for more weapons and money.
The spokeswoman claimed that “there can be no doubt” that Kiev’s latest accusations of a Russian attack on Chernobyl are yet another example of this behavior.
Ahead of the conference on Friday, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed that a Russian drone had attacked the containment structure of the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant, saying it resulted in “significant damage.”
Moscow has vehemently denied the charge, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressing that any reports about Russia targeting nuclear facilities are false. He said that there has been no verifiable information about an attack on the plant and suggested that it was simply a provocation by Kiev.
A planned meeting between Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference has been postponed, according to media sources. The delay is reportedly due to the US requiring additional time to finalize a proposed agreement on critical minerals.
US President Donald Trump recently called for Ukraine to provide “the equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earths” in return for the “more than $300 billion” in aid sent to Kiev by his predecessor, Joe Biden. Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump stated that he had a phone conversation with Zelensky earlier that day and claimed Kiev had agreed to his demands.
Security measures have been heightened in Munich as the city prepares to host a major security conference, just a day after a car driven by an Afghan immigrant plowed into a crowd of trade union protesters, injuring at least 36 people.
Bavarian police announced in a press conference that, while the attack was not linked to the conference, authorities have decided to increase police presence across the city as a precaution. Officers from various regions of Germany have been deployed to support local forces.