Vice President JD Vance warned European allies attending the security conference in Munich, Germany, against “the threat from within,” arguing that European governments are exercising extreme censorship and have failed to adequately get a handle on “out-of-control migration.”
“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,” he said Friday. “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 denounced Romania, a NATO ally, for its recent cancellation of presidential election results over evidence of Russian disinformation. “If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” he said. “I’d ask my European friends to have some perspective.”
He also appeared to voice support for right-wing parties that have been banned from joining governments in Europe, saying, “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls.”
Vance said of all the pressing challenges facing Europe and the U.S. “there is nothing more pressing than migration.”
He blamed the “series of conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent and others across the world,” and he highlighted the Thursday attack in Munich where an Afghan national drove a car into a crowd, injuring at least 30 people.
The remarks came as a surprise to the audience of leaders and top officials who were expecting Vance to focus on Ukraine and Russia. The vice president only made a passing remark on the issue.
The Trump administration is “very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine,” Vance said. “And we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense.”
Following Vance’s speech, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius rejected Vance’s characterization of European policies.
“If I understand him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regions … that is not acceptable.”
Vance’s remarks are “an effort to flip the script,” on Europe’s concerns about American democracy, said Kristine Berzina, managing director of GMF Geostrategy North.
“There was shockingly no mention of NATO, no discussion of Ukraine. Instead, it was the presentation of a right-wing vision of democracy days before the German election,” she told VOA.
Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, on the sidelines of the conference.
De-isolating Russia
President Donald Trump spoke this week with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, which will mark its three-year anniversary on Feb. 24.
Trump said he and the Russian president have “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” to end the war.
Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Trump called Kyiv’s NATO membership bid “impractical” and its desire to win back Russian-occupied territories “illusionary.”
His comments mirror remarks made by his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who said Wednesday at NATO headquarters that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to join NATO — something Zelenskyy argues is central to protecting Ukraine in the long-term, but that Putin has long opposed. Hegseth also called Ukraine’s desire to regain territory that it lost to Russia an “unrealistic objective.”
Additionally, Trump said it was a mistake to kick Moscow out of the Group of Seven of industrialized democracies, then known as the G8, following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.
“I’d love to have them back,” Trump said, adding that he and Putin “agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s nations” and added that they would “probably” meet in Saudi Arabia in the near future.
Russian politicians have welcomed the shift from former President Joe Biden’s policies that aimed to isolate Moscow.
“I am sure that in Kyiv, Brussels, Paris and London they are now reading Trump’s lengthy statement on his conversation with Putin with horror and cannot believe their eyes,” Senior lawmaker Alexei Pushkov wrote on his messaging app Friday.
European leaders have said they worry Washington is conceding key agenda items to Putin that would jeopardize Kyiv’s standing toward a potential settlement of the conflict.
“A failed Ukraine would weaken Europe, but it would also weaken the United States,” warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke before Vance in Munich.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Munich, Zelenskyy said his priority is to speak with U.S. and European officials before engaging with the Russians. Moscow has said it is not sending a delegation to the conference.
“I will be very clear. First, I see the order of meetings and decisions is the United States, Europe then Russia. We’re not against everything but we are supporting this,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine said that at the Munich meeting, its delegation will present its position on ending the war and explain its vision for achieving a lasting peace. Zelenskyy said that if Trump could bring him and Putin to the negotiating table, he would offer to swap Ukrainian-occupied territory in Russia for Russian-held land in Ukraine.
America first
The Munich Security Report released ahead of the conference noted that this year’s gathering takes place in the context of an international order that appears to be in flux under Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
“Donald Trump’s presidential victory has buried the U.S. post-Cold War foreign policy consensus that a grand strategy of liberal internationalism would best serve U.S. interests,” said the report.
It is unclear what the Trump administration’s ultimate strategy is to end the war — a promise the president campaigned on. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday ahead of his Munich speech, Vance said Moscow could face more sanctions and even “military tools” if it refuses to agree a deal ensuring Ukraine’s long-term independence.
Gaza and the fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas also are likely to be a focus in Munich. Trump recently said that Palestinians should leave Gaza, and the U.S. will take over the enclave — a proposition that several governments have condemned.
The conference will also host sessions on the conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as climate change, energy security and artificial intelligence during the busy three-day conference.
Henry Ridgwell, Nike Ching and Liam Scott contributed to this report.