Munich summit organisers hope for progress in resolving Gaza and Ukraine crises
Arab leaders and diplomats will head to Europe this week in a key window for Middle East peace talks as the war in Gaza overshadows an annual security summit in Germany.
The King of Jordan, President of Yemen, prime ministers of Lebanon, Iraq and Qatar and foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Oman will attend the Munich Security Conference, organisers said yesterday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is also expected to attend the three-day event, which begins on Thursday, as diplomats try to broker a pause in fighting in Gaza and stop it spreading across the Middle East.
It is hoped the summit will serve as a platform for efforts to resolve the crisis, as polls suggest it has raised Europeans’ fears about Islamist extremism.
Polling for the Munich summit shows radical Islamism is now the top public concern in France and the second highest in Germany, overtaking the threat from Russia. Similar results were observed in Italy and Britain.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel “appears to have prompted a spike in concern about radical Islamic terrorism” in several countries, the authors of the Munich Security Report said.
Western diplomats are also pushing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.
“We’ve seen goods that were refused now allowed in, but compared to the list of goods that still aren’t allowed in, there’s an awful lot on that list,” a western source said.
“We’ve seen the opening of Kerem Shalom [border crossing], which has increased capacity, but are we anywhere near the levels we need to be at? No.”
Key EU leaders in Munich will include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the US.
Foreign ministers from the G7 countries are expected to hold talks on the sidelines in Munich, as the security report warns that global co-operation is breaking down.
“Many autocrats, from Russia to Iran, feel there is an opportunity to increase their own size of the cake,” said report co-author Tobias Bunde.
Summit chairman Christoph Heusgen said the conference is aimed to “bring together the most important actors and give them an opportunity to share their views, but also to talk, including out of the public eye, and see how we can somehow make headway on the various conflicts”.
Also hanging over the summit is the war in Ukraine and the prospect that Donald Trump may once again be leading the West’s response. Russia has not been invited.
Mr Heusgen played down Mr Trump’s assertion that he would not stop Russia attacking Nato allies, saying the former president was stressing “in his own way” a well-known demand for Europe to pay more.