59th Munich Security Conference
The 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC 2023) took place from 17 to 19 February 2023 at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. The conference was dominated by the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Vladimir Putin and his 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine were discussed by most of the speakers but he was not invited and did not attend. The New York Times reported that the world was tense and fractured as the West also faced confrontation with China and a global South "often dismissive of perceived Western hypocrisy and not always persuaded by the West’s moral indignation over the invasion of Ukraine". Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of People's Republic of China Wang Yi announced his peace initiative for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the same day US Vice President Kamala Harris urged China not to arm Russia, while she announced that the US "has determined Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was adamant that "Any peace has to be consistent with the principles of the United Nations Charter." Newly minted German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius witnessed unity which gave him hope about the events in