Closing summary
in Munich
… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today and for our coverage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference!
“Contrary to what some may say, woke decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, insisted as she appeared on stage on the final day of the conference (9:48).
But Kallas welcomed US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s speech from Saturday, saying that “we don’t see eye to eye in all the issues and that this will remain the case as well, but I think we can work from there” (9:51).
But other European leaders urged Europe to not “cling to love words” from the US, but focus on reforming itself, ramping up its defence production and strenghtening its strategic independence (9:52, 9:53, 9:58).
The European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde, struck an upbeat tone that Europe always “gets better in crisis,” as she called for a reaction to “kick in butt by Trump” (10:40).
Meanwhile, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of “betraying the west” with his “disgraceful” policy of pressurising Ukraine to strike a peace deal with Russia (11:18).
Separately,
Both Kallas and Latvian president Edgars Rinkēvičs said that while the EU was broadly agreed on prioritising Ukraines’ accession to the bloc, they currently appeared “not ready” to commit to a specific date (10:06), as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy keeps pushing for a 2027 target.
Looking forward to the upcoming peace talks in Geneva, Kallas said the EU should focus on identifying its key asks of Russia (10:26).
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has landed in Slovakia as he continues his European charm offensive tour, with a visit to Hungary expected on Monday (11:04).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa.
Thank you for following our reporting from Munich.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Updated
Ex Nato secretary general Stoltenberg also briefly comes in on Greenland in the context of managing differences between Europe and the US.
He says:
“As friends and as allies, we have to be very clear when some core values are threatened or challenged.
For instance, on Greenland, many European countries and Norway said very clearly it is unacceptable to claim the territory of another country, and we said that to our strongest ally. I think that was the right thing to do.
Sometimes we have to be very clear, especially when these core values are challenged; but it’s not all about clarity and [simply] saying what we think, but it’s also about finding a way to address the problem.
The good news now is that we are in a better place now than we just were a few weeks ago because now there is actually an ongoing process between Greenland and Denmark and the United States to address the issues that have been raised and hopefully we’ll find a way to sort it out and continue to be together in this big transatlantic family.”
