Trans-Atlantic tensions in focus as annual Munich security gathering
opens
[February 13, 2026]
By EMMA BURROWS, MATTHEW LEE and GEIR MOULSON
MUNICH (AP) — An annual gathering of top international security figures
that last year set the tone for a growing rift between the United States
and Europe opens Friday, bringing together many top European officials
with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others.
The Munich Security Conference opens with a speech by German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz, one of 15 heads of state or government from European
Union countries expected to attend.
The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday
include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference's tradition, there will
also be a large delegation of members of the U.S. Congress.
“Trans-Atlantic relations have been the backbone of this conference
since it was founded in 1963 ... and trans-Atlantic relations are
currently in a significant crisis of confidence and credibility,”
conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters earlier this week.
“So it is particularly welcome that the American side has such great
interest in Munich.”
At last year's conference, held a few weeks into U.S. President Donald
Trump's second term, Vice President JD Vance stunned European leaders by
lecturing them about the state of democracy on the continent.
A series of statements and moves from the Trump administration targeting
allies followed in the months after that, including Trump's threat last
month to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to
secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO
ally Denmark. The president later dropped that threat.
With Rubio heading the U.S. delegation this year, European leaders can
hope for a less contentious approach more focused on traditional global
security concerns.
[to top of second column]
|
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in Munich, Germany,
Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, for the Munich Security Conference. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
Rubio is expected to meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette
Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on
the sidelines of the conference, according to officials from both
sides, one of many bilateral meetings going on in and around the
hotel that hosts the event.
Before departing for Germany on Thursday, Rubio had some reassuring
words as he described Europe as important for Americans.
“We’re very tightly linked together with Europe,” he told reporters.
“Most people in this country can trace both, either their cultural
or their personal heritage, back to Europe. So, we just have to talk
about that.”
But Rubio made clear it wouldn’t be business as it used to be,
saying: “We live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to
require all of us to reexamine what that looks like.”
Rubio arrived in Munich Friday and is due to address the conference
on Saturday morning.
Since last year's Munich conference, NATO allies have agreed under
pressure from Trump to a large increase in their defense spending
target.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said there has been a “shift in
mindset,” with “Europe really stepping up, Europe taking more of a
leadership role within NATO, Europe also taking more care of its own
defense.”
___
Moulson reported from Berlin.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
