It’s the first day of the Munich Security Conference.
Key speakers today will include:
Kamala Harris, the US vice president
António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations
Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana
Gustavo Petro Urrego, president of Colombia
David Cameron, the British foreign secretary
Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister
At the historic Hotel Bayerischer Hof, where the Munich Security Conference takes place every year, we ran into Benedikt Franke, MSC’s vice-chair and chief executive officer as he was greeting guests.
We asked him to tell Guardian readers what themes he expects will dominate discussions over the coming days.
This year our main theme is lose-lose, because we believe we have entered a world where there are increasing attitudes of zero-sum thinking.
What we want to do with this conference is to provide a few examples of silver linings in what seems like a very complicated world, and how to include the global south in transatlantic and global security.
Good morning and welcome to a special edition of the live blog, coming to you from the Munich Security Conference.
Over the next three days, leaders, diplomats, activists and businesspeople will be gathering in Munich.
The annual meeting is always closely watched, but this year it will be especially so, given concerns about the situation in the Middle East, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the future of the transatlantic alliance.
Many officials have already arrived – on a flight from Brussels to Munich last night, we spotted several senior officials headed to the conference, including the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Stay tuned for updates and analysis, and send your tips and reactions to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.
