U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken face a challenging task as they attend the annual Munich Security Conference starting on Friday. Their goal is to reassure allies of the United States’ commitment to defending their security.
Harris and Blinken are attending the conference less than a week after Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, stated that he would not defend NATO allies who do not spend enough on defense.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump are engaged in a tight election rematch, as shown by Reuters/Ipsos polling this week.
While Biden has not attended the annual conference in recent years, Harris is scheduled to deliver a significant speech on “the importance of fulfilling the U.S. role of global leadership” and meet with U.S. lawmakers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Harris’s leadership abilities will be closely watched in light of a recent Department of Justice special counsel report that described Biden, 81, as an elderly man with a “poor memory.” Trump is 77.
The conference comes amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West, resulting in war in a continent that has strived for peace, underwritten by U.S. security commitments to the NATO alliance that Trump has threatened to abandon.
The Senate approved a $95.34 billion military aid package for Ukraine and other countries on Tuesday. However, the funding may not be put up for a vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives due to Trump’s opposition.
During a political rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump criticized “delinquent” payments by NATO members and recounted a past conversation in which he said he would not protect a certain country against a potential Russian attack, stating, “You gotta pay.”
The NATO treaty includes a provision that guarantees mutual defense of member states if one is attacked.
Biden condemned Trump’s comments, stating that they invited Putin to invade allies and emphasized the urgent need for Ukraine funding.
Jeremy Shapiro, a research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, does not expect Harris or Blinken to make any commitments about a prospective Trump administration. Instead, they will convey a simple message: “We’re going to win the election,” Shapiro said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Humeyra Pamuk. Editing by Heather Timmons, Noeleen Walder and Lincoln Feast.)
