Leading politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gather in Munich on Friday for a security conference that will be dominated by the wars in Israel and Ukraine as well as fears over the US commitment to defending its allies.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are among top officials attending the Munich Security Conference, an annual global gathering focused on defense and diplomacy.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh are also expected to attend the conference, which begins on Friday and runs until Sunday at the luxury Bayerischer Hof hotel in the southern German city.
The conference takes place as the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas enters its fifth month with no end in sight.
It also takes place shortly before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year.
Both wars have ignited fears that will likely be addressed at Munich about possible regional spillover.
"The world has become more dangerous," Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the NATO Western defense alliance told Reuters on Wednesday.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said officials from European countries that help to fund the Palestinian territories and key Arab and Gulf states would meet on the sidelines of the Munich event to start discussing the future for Israel and the Palestinian people after a potential ceasefire.
"There are lots of things we need to start talking about now," Cameron said in remarks to Britain's House of Lords. "Whether it's about this question of how you offer a political horizon to people in the Palestinian territories, or indeed, how we deal with Israel's very real security concerns."
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he would set foot on German soil for the first time to give a keynote speech at the conference, after refraining from doing so as he grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors.
"I will do everything for Israel's security, securing our future and returning the hostages," he said.
Other big international issues will also feature at the conference, such as conflicts in the Horn of Africa increasing food insecurity and displacing millions, and relations between the West and China.
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