Munich meet: a gathering of elites detached from realities
The writer is a PhD scholar of Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague. She can be reached at shaziaanwer@yahoo.com and tweets @ShaziaAnwerCh
The Munich Security Conference held on Feb 16-18, 2024 was more of an after-party as compared to the Munich Security Conferences held in 2022 and 2023.
During the 2022 and 2023 conferences, everybody was euphoric about an ‘imminent victory’ of the ‘Collective West’ against Russia. Everybody was advocating warfare and enthusiastic about the proxy war fought by Ukraine to defeat Russia at the cost of innocent Ukrainian civilians, destroying the economy of Russia, turning the country into pieces, and solving this Western issue once and for all.
During the 2022 and 2023 conferences, there were talks of weapon supply, funds allocation and collective Western moral support for Ukraine to exercise its right of self-defence against the Russian invasion. The Gentleman of the Evening was Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the odd one out was Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi due to the reason of the impression West got from the sources unknown that China wants to play a role of a mediatory. However, the Chinese Foreign Office never confirmed that Beijing was so eager to jump into the conflict as a mediator.
What I observed in the 2024 conference was that a couple of roles have been shifted. The Lady of the Evening was Alexie Navalny’s widow, and the odd one out was Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Collective West. This time their 2022 euphoria has been simmering down and the news of the fall of Avdiivka poured cold water on the Western high-headed fantasy of a war victory against Russia. President Zelenskyy roamed around finding someone to ask for help and was being practically ignored, though the most in-demand person in the room was the Chinese Foreign Minister.
Among the eager elite who got an opportunity to talk to Wang Yi were US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, British Foreign Minister David Cameron and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. What they discussed is available on the Chinese Foreign Ministry website. Here, I will discuss the pulse I got from the facial expressions, demeanor, and of course readouts of the meeting provided by the Chinese Foreign Office.
In 2022, the ‘upcoming victory’ joy was overwhelming. On the contrary this year a humiliating defeat is clearly written on the wall. So the dismay and bad timing of the fall of the most fortified Avdiivka gave a public display of reality check during the Munich Conference which increased the resentment and panic. Alexey Navalny’s soul was supportive of Western demands whose death provided a decoy effect for public face-saving and ammunition for western media to distract public from actual issues.
My readings of the situation are that these world leaders wanted to urge China to talk to Russia to find a way out of this upcoming humiliating defeat in their proxy war against Russians. They might have thought that China is all about win-win cooperation so let’s ask the Chinese foreign minister to find an “only West wins” solution.
Anyway, joke aside but even discussing this farce seriously, that’s what more or less one can get out of these meetings. Because even the funding from the US and EU can’t provide artillery shells to Ukraine because they don’t have them in their stock. And the solution to that was given by Czech Prime Minister General Pawal: why don’t we buy artillery shells from the open market. So now Collective West is going on a shopping spree, buying a box of ammunition for Ukraine.
I almost missed a crucial meeting during the Munich Conference where the Argentinian Foreign Minister too talked to the Chinese foreign minister. Remember Argentina has ditched the BRICS membership and is not willing to align with China anymore. But China is a reality which later or sooner gets seeped in. And I think Argentina has also got that reality shock as the West did after throwing the superficial rhetoric of De-coupling and De-Risking from China. The Munich Security Conference was a washout show and mockery of the peace. Consequently nothing conclusive came out of it – just photo shoots, false smiles camouflaging panic, and shallow discussions. A gathering of privileged elite, totally detached from the global realities.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2024.
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