A michael local welcome to d w special coverage of the Munich Security Conference the annual event brings together World Leaders top ministers and experts the 1st day of talks have already shown potential progress talks between the u. S. And the taliban may lead to a fresh Peace Process for afghanistan and an unprecedented meeting between chinese and vatican diplomats has taken place for the 1st time in decades one topic has dominated the conference fears that the western powers could be losing their unified front on friday germanys president warned that a lack of western solidarity was fueling global insecurity todays panel is set to tackle that topic with nato chief u. N. Stoltenberg and u. S. Secretary of state mike pompei oh joined by pretentiously the Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov we also. Understand that mark esper the u. S. Defense secretary may also be at the talk today at the event in munich we have de w. s chief Political Editor me. And here in the studio im joined b
Time it recognizes that our 2nd tier parties are rogue states such as north korea and iran and finally dealing with violent extremist organizations will likely be an enduring threat for years to come being in europe i know that there has been much discussion about the challenges from russia so this morning i want to focus on the pentagons top concern the peoples republic of china next year will mark the 20th anniversary of a decision that fundamentally altered the course of International Affairs chinas admission into the World Trade Organization i was working in the United States senate at the time and 2 competing arguments over chinas membership dominated the public debate. The prevailing notion of the day was that if we allowed the p. R. C. In the b. T. O. And other multilateral institutions china would continue on its path of economic reform and eventually become a market oriented trading partner more broadly increased engagement with the liberal world order would also spur politica