US Vice President JD Vance spoke at the Munich Leaders’ Meeting with the chair of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger. The conversation revolved around the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and America’s role in potentially resolving it.
Vance exclaimed his frustration with Russia demanding “too much” to end the conflict:
“I’m not yet that pessimistic on this. I wouldn’t say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. What I would say is, right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much.”
The Vice President finds it problematic that Russia and Ukraine have difficulty with simple wartime negotiations due to the complicated history between their regions. For Vance it is necessary that both nations come to basic agreements and stop complaining about past grievances:
“We would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another. That is the next big step we’d like to take,” Vance said. “They hate each other so much that if you have an hour conversation with either side, the first 30 minutes is just complaining about some historical grievance.”
Vance stated that President Donald Trump hates the loss of life stemming from the war, which he believes is overlooked:
“I think people underappreciate this about our President here in the United States is, he has a genuine humanitarian impulse about this,” the Vice President noted. “He hates innocent people losing their lives. He hates even soldiers losing their lives in unnecessary conflicts. He just wants the killing to stop, and that will continue to be America’s policy. But obviously, as all of you have seen, we’ll navigate that policy and react as parties bring their grievances to us.”
Vice President Vance also addressed the topic of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. The administration is against this because it can lead to nuclear proliferation among other countries.
“If Iran gets a nuclear weapon,” Vance asked, “which country then next gets a nuclear weapon, and then when that country gets a nuclear weapon, which country after that? We really care not just about Iran, but about nuclear proliferation…”
