BELFAST — As heads of states, defense ministers, industry leaders and analysts prepare to descend on Hotel Bayerischer Hof for the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC), burning issues around a slew of geopolitical events laid out in a new report from the event host are set to dominate proceedings.
This year’s report, published days before the gathering begins, highlights tension between the US and Europe over Ukraine, the Greenland standoff and Europe’s increasing “sense of insecurity.”
Titled “Under Destruction,” the report delivers strong criticism of the US, accusing Washington of leading “wrecking-ball politics” across the globe — a style the authors defined as “sweeping destruction” instead of thoughtful policy reform.
“The most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation is the current US administration. As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction,” reads the document, published Monday.
MSC Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, in a Monday panel discussion previewing MSC, compared this year’s meeting to a bicycle repair shop.
“This repair work is … about rebuilding trust and confidence across the Atlantic,” adding that, “at least for the European participants in Munich, [a secondary mission] is to go from lamenting … what [President] Donald Trump has said or not said, to real action, to decisions.
“Whether we like it or not, we have had a trust problem and a serious discussion because of Greenland,” he said, calling the Arctic island standoff a “public relations disaster.”
Pushing back on the report during the discussion with Ischinger, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said, “I don’t see a world under destruction,” adding that it was “completely wrong” to see the US as the “elephant in the room.”
America is “not trying to dismantle NATO,” and the 5 percent GDP spending pledge agreed at the NATO summit in the Hague is making the alliance stronger, Whitaker argued: “All President Trump is trying to do is instead of the United States taxpayers … bearing the burden of the security of Europe, we have tried to balance that out. … The burden is shifted to our European allies.”
On the issue of Greenland, Trump has said he won’t use force in any attempt to take over the island, but talks with Denmark have yet to deliver a deal regarding a diplomatic resolution. On that front, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte insists work behind the scenes is ongoing to try and reach an agreement.
“We’re making a lot of great progress trilaterally” on the various issues connected to the semi-autonomous territory, Whitaker said, adding that Trump “clearly identified the security needs of Greenland, how important it is to North America [and] how important it is to the Golden Dome deployment.”
The related issues, Whitaker claimed, include NATO and European allies not “doing enough” to contribute to the security of the Arctic island, mentioning the potential for it to fall under the “malign influence” of China and Russia, alongside resolving critical mineral mining rights.
A Message To China And Russia
Crucially, the report also notes that as Russia is “seemingly regaining tactical initiative along parts of the front with Ukraine and is intensifying its hybrid warfare campaign across Europe, Washington’s gradual retreat, wavering support for Ukraine, and threatening rhetoric on Greenland are heightening Europe’s sense of insecurity.”
Ischinger urged European officials over the coming days to focus on discussing a “more consolidated, more capable, more competitive defense market,” one able to sustain Ukrainian demand “now that the United States has decided not to continue to be the No. 1 provider directly of military supplies” to Kyiv.
“I think that can be done, but it requires … maybe some painful decisions,” he explained.
Looking at how Western adversaries should interpret MSC 2026, Ischinger said that signals of European resilience and less dependence on the US can come out from Munich this weekend.
“I think that’s the message that should arrive in Moscow … that should arrive in Beijing.” he said.
Addressing the issue of whether European forces are ready and willing to fight a war on the continent, Arancha González, dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, said it was a “false debate” because of how soldiers from countries including Britain, Denmark, Germany and Spain had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“European soldiers, Spanish soldiers, German soldiers, French soldiers are at the moment in every corner of the European Union, especially on the Eastern Front, because the threat is today very acute” in that region, she said. “They are there under a NATO flag. The only thing we don’t have at the moment in Europe is a European Command, and that is maybe where we’ve got to be investing a little bit more.”
Laying out developments in Ukraine that have witnessed Russia rely heavily on Iranian drones, North Korean soldiers on the ground and tap China for dual-use technologies to sustain the conflict, Whitaker posed the question: “Do you [Europe] want to align with that, or do you want to align with … the [US] shining city on the hill?”
Besides transatlantic tension, other topics on the agenda at the conference include AI, climate change, hybrid warfare, nuclear security and space, Ischinger noted.
Organizers expect approximately 70 heads of state to attend, in addition to over 140 defense and foreign ministers. More than 40 heads of international firms, alongside personnel representing military, industry, civil society, humanitarian institutions and academia are also set to participate.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz is due to open proceedings Friday, a day before a planned speech from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Other confirmed European leaders include Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Whitaker, referring to what he framed as last year’s “provocative” MSC speech from US Vice President JD Vance — which drew widespread condemnation from European leaders — said those type of disagreements over alleged democratic infringements across Europe and hate speech do not mean the US and Europe are “getting a divorce.”
He also defended the decision of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to forgo attendance at NATO’s defense ministers meeting on Thursday.
“We have a big world, and only one [defense secretary] and only one secretary of state, and they have a lot of places to be,” he said.
Undersecretary for Defense Policy Elbridge Colby — the chief architect of the National Defense Strategy, which seemed to indicate a force withdrawal from Europe is coming — will take Hegseth’s place at the allied forum.