AILSA CHANG, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Ailsa Chang in Culver City, California.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And I'm Mary Louise Kelly at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. This gathering of world leaders and generals, spies and security experts - it has its roots in the Cold War era. We know that what happens in Munich does not stay in Munich. It affects alliances all over the world. And this conference has been the stage for all kinds of consequential speeches. NPR Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz is an old hand here in Munich. He joins me now from just across the city to talk through some of the pivotal moments. Hello, from my hotel to yours, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Hello for my hotel. Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So - OK. Let's go to the memorable speeches - there have been a lot - delivered on the main stage of this conference. Rob, you've been zooming in on a few of those delivered this century.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. You know, I approached this to try and gain a little insight into how we arrived at this spot in history from a global security perspective. So, Mary Louise, I want to take you back to 2003.
KELLY: Back to 2003. So, OK, not too long after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration's war on terror is underway.
SCHMITZ: Exactly. Yeah. So we're going to start there because a speech given that year had consequences that still reverberate today. And here's a little tape from the man who delivered that speech.
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DONALD RUMSFELD: Let me be clear. No one wants war. No, war is never a first or an easy choice.
KELLY: Oh. As a former Pentagon correspondent, I recognize that voice. That was then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
SCHMITZ: That's right. And here he is in February of 2003, saying no one wants war. And a little more than a month later, the U.S. waged war on Iraq.
KELLY: Yeah. And that war was controversial even before it started. Germany, France - they were against it.
SCHMITZ: They were. And Rumsfeld got into hot water at this conference that year for calling those two countries old Europe, insinuating that new Europe included Eastern European countries like Poland, that were supporting the U.S. In fact, he said that because of NATO's efforts, the center of Europe had shifted eastward, making the alliance stronger.
KELLY: Making the alliance stronger. Yeah. But I can think of one country, a country with a large military, that was not too happy about this change.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. That's right. This eastward shift of NATO and the U.S. war in Iraq became the foundation of another Munich Security Conference speech four years later.
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PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Through interpreter) The format of this conference gives me the opportunity to avoid unnecessary politeness and the need to speak in round, pleasant but empty diplomatic cliches.
SCHMITZ: The speaker was Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here he is speaking through a translator.
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PUTIN: (Through interpreter) The United States has crossed its national borders in all areas - in the economy, in politics and in the humanitarian sphere. And this is being imposed other states.
SCHMITZ: Longtime attendees of the conference say this speech in 2007 was one of the most consequential ones in the conference's history. Putin lashed out against what he called a unipolar world overseen by the United States, one where NATO's expansion closer and closer to Russia symbolized U.S. dominance.
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PUTIN: (Through interpreter) I think it's obvious that the process of NATO enlargement has nothing to do with the modernization of the alliance itself or with security in Europe. On the contrary, it is a serious provoking factor that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have a fair right to ask, frankly, who is this expansion against?
SCHMITZ: In hindsight, this was the prelude to a string of Russian invasions. The next year, Putin ordered Russian forces to invade neighboring Georgia. Then in 2014 came the Russian annexation of Crimea. And in 2022, at the same podium Putin spoke at 15 years earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared, and he delivered a warning about what he predicted would be Russia's next move, a full-scale invasion of his country. Here he is speaking through a translator.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (Through interpreter) We are going to protect our country with or without support of our partners. Be it hundreds pieces of contemporary armament or 5,000 helmets, we equally appreciate the support, but everyone needs to understand that this is not some kind of donation Ukraine should be reminding or begging for.
SCHMITZ: This, he said to a roomful of Western leaders, is your contribution to the security of Europe and the world. Five days later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And two years after that, in 2024, at that same podium, then-Senator JD Vance addressed European concerns that if Donald Trump were reelected president, he would stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and forget about Europe.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JD VANCE: Trump is actually issuing a wake-up call to say that Europe has to take a bigger role in its own security. Germany, just this year, will spend more than 2% of GDP, OK? That, of course, is something that we had to really push for in the United States, and it just now has finally cleared that threshold.
SCHMITZ: A year later, Vance returned to the podium as vice president, and he used his time in front of European leaders to, again, criticize and warn them, the latest in a long tradition at this security conference of making those in attendance feel insecure about things to come.
KELLY: Rob Schmitz, I'm listening along. I know you were there last year when JD Vance stepped back onto the stage. How did Europeans respond to him?
SCHMITZ: It was jarring for so many people in the European delegation. They were in - sort of in a state of shock. And I think it's worth pointing out here that the Munich Security Conference, as I've laid out in the story, has a history of leaders coming in and saying things that are at first really uncomfortable for those in the establishment to hear, but then it takes them years to sort of get used to it. And I think, you know, in many ways, these are warnings that then eventually gain some sort of uncomfortable acceptance.
KELLY: NPR's Rob Schmitz. Thank you, Rob.
SCHMITZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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