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The
conference, known as "Davos for defence", brings together the
world's defence and security elite at the luxurious Bayerischer
Hof hotel in Munich. It has been scaled down drastically this
year to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.
The meeting on Feb. 18-20 comes at a sensitive time.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border,
prompting the West to reinforce NATO's Eastern flank with
thousands of extra troops while trying to ward off any military
conflict with a flurry of diplomatic talks.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin will not attend the meeting,
the conference's outgoing Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger told
reporters, adding it was not clear whether Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov would accept his invitation.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are among those expected to
come to Munich, according to Ischinger.
He said he hoped for clarity soon on whether U.S. Vice President
Kamala Harris will join the meeting, while China's Foreign
Minister Wang Yi planned either to attend in person or virtually
as the Winter Olympics in his country will still be going on at
the time.
The foreign and defence ministers of Germany and France are
among more than 100 ministers expected to be present in Munich,
Ischinger said, as well Britain's defence minister.
After 14 years as chairman of the conference, Ischinger is due
to hand over the reins at the end of this year's meeting to
Christoph Heusgen, former Chancellor Angela Merkel's advisor on
foreign and security policy.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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