russia is not invited to Munich Security Conference

Representatives of the russian authorities were not invited to the upcoming Munich Security Conference.

The Chair of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, stated this on Twitter.

"Russian officials are not invited to MSC2023 [Munich Security Conference 2023].

We will not give them a platform for their propaganda.

We want to discuss Russia's future with Russian opposition leaders and exiled people—THEIR voices need to be heard and amplified," Heusgen wrote.

To recap, the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, believes that the war has changed the circumstances regarding Ukraine's membership in NATO and that it should not be ruled out now.

Speaking about Ukraine's possible NATO membership, Heusgen noted that former Chancellor Angela Merkel vetoed Ukraine's accession at the 2008 summit.

However, according to Heusgen, who was Merkel's foreign policy adviser for many years, the situation has changed due to putin's violation of international law.

"We have to think about what guarantees we can give to Ukraine… But I think we should no longer rule out Ukraine's membership in NATO," he told Bayern media group newspapers.

Reference

The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference held since 1962. At first, only representatives of NATO countries took part in it.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, officials from Ukraine, russia, China, and other countries began to join the event.

The founder, permanent organizer, and leader until 1998 was the German publisher Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin.

Since 1999, this role has been performed by Horst Teltschik, a former advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on foreign and defense issues.

And since 2009, this role has been taken over by Wolfgang Ischinger.