The Ministry of Defence Sven Mikser will attend the 39th Munich Conference on Security Policy which will be held at the hotel “Bayerischer Hof” in Munich from 7 to 9 February 2003. The topic of this years conference is “Engaging in dialogue helps more than confrontation and war”. The Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristiina Ojuland, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Harri Tiido and the Defence Policy Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence Margus Kolga will also attend.
Foreign and defence ministers from 28 countries, numerous politicians and top-ranking military personnel as well as distinguished representatives of the economy, science and media have already confirmed their participation.
Moreover, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, Dr Javier Solana, will attend. As in former years, a large, high-ranking US delegation is expected to join the event. Delegations from China, Japan, Australia, India and Pakistan have got an invitation to join the conference.
The conference does not exclusively address NATO-related issues, but focuses additionally on NATO\'s future role and the EU\'s foreign and security policy in terms of crisis prevention and crisis management, the global fight against terrorism and its current situation and perspectives, and on the future development in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. The main emphasis of the conference will be given to the peaceful solution of the current Iraqi conflict and thus safeguarding peace in the world.
In addition to several burning security-policy issues the conference participants will discuss
Important decisions taken during the European Union summit meeting in Copenhagen last December. These concern EU and NATO decisions on implementing Alliance’s military resources in EU-led operations, fight against terrorism and each country’s input into it; rapid reaction capabilities, joint training, cooperation with NATO and other international organizations, conflict prevention and ties with third countries.
Chronology of the Munich Conference on Security Policy:
1962 | The German publisher Ewald von Kleist founded the \"Wehrkundetagung\" in Munich, which was later renamed the international \"Conference on Security Policy\". Ministers, members of parliament, high-ranking representatives of the armed forces, scientists and representatives of the media are invited to the discussion forum, which focuses on foreign and security policy challenges in European and American relations. |
1991 | The Security Conference was cancelled due to the Gulf War. |
1997 | Ewald von Kleist no longer wanted to chair the conference after his 75th birthday. The Security Conference was not held in 1997. |
1998 | The Security Conference\'s founder, Ewald von Kleist, chaired the event for the last time. Upon the proposal of the then Federal Chancellor, Dr. Helmut Kohl, the conference was chaired by his former foreign and security policy adviser, Horst Teltschik. The new German government under Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder continued to support the conference financially. |
1999 | A new era in the conference\'s history began with the 35th Munich Conference on Security Policy. Under its new organiser and moderator, Horst Teltschik, the conference was opened to representatives of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to the business community. At the same time, the number of American delegates, particularly congress members, increased. In addition, Asia was included in the themes, in keeping with the requirements of a global security policy. High-ranking representatives of the People\'s Republic of China, Japan and India now regularly take part in the conference. |
1999 - 2001 | Three volumes of conference documentation were published. |
2001 | The Munich Conference on Security Policy goes online. |
2002 | The conference celebrated its 40th anniversary. |
2002 | A new version of the homepage replaced and complemented the series of publications. |
2004 | Another anniversary: the conference will be held in Munich for the 40th time. |
See also the link:
http://www.securityconference.de/