The Munich Security Conference has been a news-making forum for decades \u2013 a place where world leaders meet other politicians, as well as journalists and civil society groups, to discuss the biggest issues facing the planet.<\/p>\n
In recent years, it has been the site of seismic speeches that redefine the shape of global politics. From a public spat between Nato allies over Iraq<\/a> in 2003, to Vladimir Putin\u2019s 2007 address<\/a> that signalled the start of a new cold war, to JD Vance\u2019s blistering attack on European nations<\/a> in 2025, each moment had an impact that echoed long after the weekend came to a close.<\/p>\n As the dust settles on this year\u2019s event, here are some questions emerging from the conference:<\/p>\n Will Europe \u2018wake up\u2019 to a changing world?<\/p>\n After European leaders were left stunned by the US vice-president\u2019s assault on their values<\/a> in 2025, many came into this year\u2019s conference with a sense of urgency. In the days before the meeting<\/a>, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said \u201cthis must be the moment of awakening. It is time for Europe to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n Macron and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz<\/a>, gave speeches at the conference that sought to map a new, independent path for European powers, while striving to maintain the alliance with Washington. Both leaders announced that they had begun talks on a European nuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the UK\u2019s prime minister, Keir Starmer, made the case<\/a> for a closer defence relationship with Europe, saying his country was \u201cnot the Britain of the Brexit years\u201d.<\/p>\n After calling Europe<\/a> a \u201csleeping giant\u201d, Starmer went on to stress that a closer UK-EU defence relationship did not imply any weakening of the UK-US relationship, or of Nato.<\/p>\n Can the US and Europe remain united?<\/p>\n The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, struck a more conciliatory tone than that of Vance in 2025 when he took the stage on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c[The US is] deeply tied to Europe, and our futures have always been linked and will continue to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Outlining how the US under Trump was intent on building a new world order, Rubio said: \u201cWe are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, [but] it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n He made the speech a day after a YouGov poll showed that among the six largest European countries favourability towards the US was at its lowest point since tracking began a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cA rift has opened up between Europe and the United States,\u201d Merz said in his speech on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe culture war of the Maga movement is not ours. Freedom of speech ends here with us when that speech goes against human dignity and the constitution. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade,\u201d the German chancellor said, drawing applause.<\/p>\n The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned \u201cfashionable euro-bashing\u201d by the US, saying<\/a>: \u201cWhen I travel around the world, I see countries that look up to us because we represent values that are still highly regarded.\u201d<\/p>\n Does Trump still want Greenland?<\/p>\n The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and her counterpart in Greenland<\/a>, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, held a 15-minute meeting with Rubio on the sidelines of the conference on Friday, which Frederiksen described as \u201cconstructive\u201d.<\/p>\n A day later though, she told a panel discussion on Arctic security that she believed Trump still desires to own Greenland<\/a>, despite dialling back his recent threats<\/a> to seize it by force.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody asks us, do we think it\u2019s over? I mean, no, we don\u2019t think it\u2019s over,\u201d Frederiksen said.<\/p>\n A US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss Washington\u2019s security concerns in the Arctic, but Frederiksen and Nielsen used their appearance on Saturday to say the pressure on the island\u2019s people had been \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n Is peace in Ukraine any closer?<\/p>\n Rubio skipped a Ukraine-focused meeting with European leaders on Friday, and said little in his speech about the conflict with Russia. However, he found time to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> on the sidelines of the conference.<\/p>\n The US is set to host a trilateral meeting between the two warring sides on Tuesday, but in his speech at the conference<\/a> Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was doing \u201ceverything\u201d to end the war, insisting that viable security guarantees were the only way to get to a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans often return to the topic of concessions, and too often those concessions are discussed in the context only of Ukraine<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said that Kyiv needed security guarantees for a minimum of 20 years from the US before it could sign a peace deal with dignity, and also called for a clear date for Ukraine to be allowed to join the EU.<\/p>\n Which future Democratic hopefuls were there?<\/p>\n Throughout the years, the Munich Security Conference has become a staging ground for future presidential nominees and a chance for them to burnish their foreign policy credentials.<\/p>\n This year, prominent Democrats rolled into Munich with the message that European leaders must stand up to Trump<\/a>. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom; the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego, and the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, were all in attendance, but it was the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that received the most attention, with speculation that her presence might indicate a possible run for the White House in 2028.<\/p>\n