What is the Munich Security Conference?

Influential annual summit in the Bavarian capital is attended by presidents, kings and generals

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres attending the 60th Munich Security Conference in February

The Munich Security conference is one of the key dates in the global security calendar.

The influential Munich summit is attended by presidents, kings and generals, and is regarded as the defence and security equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Its current chairman is Christoph Heusgen, who was foreign policy adviser to the former German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Last February's summit was dominated by the war in the Middle East but ceasefire discussions on the margins failed to yield a breakthrough. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told delegates the situation in Gaza was “an appalling indictment of the deadlock in global relations”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been excluded from recent summits, delivered one of Munich's more famous moments in 2007 in a speech attacking the US monopoly on global power, which foreshadowed a decline in relations between Moscow and the West.

Nato's outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has declined to confirm reports that he will be the next chairman of the annual gathering of Europe's defence elite.

The 61st Munich Security Conference will take place in the Bavarian capital from February 14 to 16 next year.

“I hope very much that my successor will keep the global perspective of the conference,” said Mr Heusgen, who has been its head since 2022.

He has also been a frequent critic German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Ukraine policies, accusing him of dragging his feet over military aid for the government in Kyiv.