Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference

MUNICH: US Vice President JD Vance accused European leaders on Friday of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration, drawing a sharp rebuke from Germany’s defense minister and overshadowing discussions on the war in Ukraine.
The prospect of peace talks had been expected to dominate the annual Munich Security Conference after a call between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week but Vance barely mentioned Russia or Ukraine in his speech to the gathering.
He said the threat to Europe that worried him most was not Russia or China but what he called a retreat from fundamental values of protecting free speech — as well as immigration, which he said was “out of control” in Europe.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius hit back in his speech to the conference later in the day, calling Vance’s remarks “unacceptable.”
He said Vance had called into question democracy not only in Germany but in Europe as a whole.
The clash underlined the divergent worldviews of Trump’s new administration and European leaders, making it hard for longtime allies the United States and Europe to find common ground on issues including Ukraine.

Many conference delegates watched Vance’s speech in stunned silence. There was little applause as he delivered his remarks.
After his speech, Vance met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a move likely to draw criticism as unwelcome interference ahead of German federal elections next week.
Trump’s call with Putin alarmed European governments, which have tried to isolate the Russian president since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and fear they could be cut out of peace talks that would have repercussions for their own security.
Vance, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich on Friday, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview before the conference that Trump could use several tools — economic and military — for leverage with Putin.
Vance’s spokesman, William Martin, later took issue with the newspaper’s interpretation that the vice president had been threatening Russia.