Harris, Blinken navigate Munich Security Conference as Europe holds its breath
Nearby, at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Secretary of State Antony Blinken found it hard to navigate the narrow corridors as foreign ministers, prime ministers and other longtime acquaintances intercepted his path with handshakes, hugs or an oft-repeated “Hey, Tony!”
The split screen brought into sharp relief the complex dynamic at the conference as Harris, the senior official and head of the U.S. delegation, shares a double billing with Blinken, who has known many of the foreign officials here for decades.
The White House says their roles are complementary, that Harris is in Munich to provide leadership and inspiration while Blinken handles the private talks and diplomatic minutiae. But some U.S. diplomats say it’s not that simple.
“The vice president and Secretary Blinken have talked to each other here, but they’re pursuing separate schedules and their teams are not closely coordinated,” said one American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “You could argue it’s a divide-and-conquer strategy, but that’s far-fetched. The Harris stop is about burnishing her political credentials as a leader in the middle of a crisis.”
While this is Harris’s first visit to the annual Munich conference, Blinken has attended it several times, and his familiarity with the players was evident. He warmly greeted Germany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, as “my friend.” He held a meeting with Qatar’s foreign minister and discussed how the Persian Gulf state could help in boosting Europe’s energy supply should a Russian invasion of Ukraine lead to a shortage. He hashed out technical issues in meetings with counterparts from Austria, Britain, Germany and France.
Harris, in contrast, took center stage Saturday to deliver a keynote speech rallying U.S. allies for a united front against a Russian invasion with forceful rhetoric. “Not since the end of the Cold War has this forum convened under such dire circumstances,” Harris said. Citing the NATO principle that an attack on one is an attack on all, she added, “Let me be clear: America’s commitment to Article 5 is ironclad. This commitment is sacrosanct to me, to President Biden, and to our entire nation.”
Harris also is taking marquee meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. As a groundbreaking leader and a figure of great interest overseas, her picture frequently adorns the conference’s Twitter feed.
Harris and Blinken have seldom been in the same building, let alone the same room, and except for a private confab Friday morning, their schedules have rarely overlapped.
Biden officials say that’s by design. Behind the scenes, a senior White House official said, Harris and Blinken spoke several times on Friday, a consultation that will continue through the weekend. Their discussions were about coordinating their message as the continent responds to the Russian threat, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Russia is massing more than 150,000 troops at the Ukrainian border and sending conflicting signals about whether it will accept diplomatic overtures or accelerate toward an invasion of Ukraine. The actions have consumed the continent and the Munich conference, and drawn the United States and its allies into a transatlantic game of chicken.
Few diplomats have missed the fact that while Harris was long scheduled to attend the conference, Blinken’s attendance was confirmed at the last minute. The White House rejected the suggestion that he was being dispatched to shore up the less-seasoned Harris.
“I don’t think there’s any plans to limit or reduce the vice president’s role at the Munich Security Conference or … on the global stage,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
For Harris — a politician widely believed to be a potential heir to Biden but who is relatively inexperienced in international affairs — being front and center at Munich offers an opportunity to excel on the international stage, show global leadership and display presidential stature.
Her supporters reject the notion that Harris’s expertise ends at the border. In Congress, she was a member of Senate Intelligence Committee, and she made several international trips during her tenure as California’s attorney general. Her trip to Munich is the fifth international trip of her vice presidency and the second in less than a month.
At some point, her supporters say, the idea that she lacks foreign policy credentials will have to fade away.
Still, Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two presidential administrations over the past 20 years. He was staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while then-Sen. Biden was chairman. As secretary of state, he has been managing the United States’ web of alliances since the Russia-Ukraine crisis erupted, trying to harmonize European countries’ differing priorities so that they project a united front.
Equally important, Blinken has known and advised Biden for decades, while Harris entered his orbit two years ago when she became his running mate.
Biden’s decision to send Harris to the Munich Security Conference during a potentially volatile crisis shows his trust in her, administration officials say. The conference is a longtime annual event that brings together ministers, legislators and foreign policy wonks from both sides of the Atlantic.
The vice president will face an array of pressures from U.S. allies over the next two days. The Baltic leaders she spoke with on Friday, deeply mistrustful of the Russian behemoth on their border, want the United States to beef up its military presence in their countries. Countries including France and Germany hope Harris emphasizes diplomatic efforts to defuse the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
And through it all, Harris has to navigate an international chess match between the world and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this week, Russian leaders signaled that they were drawing down their forces in Ukraine. But later, U.S. officials said that those claims were false and that Russia had actually added troops at the border. U.S. officials called the episode a maneuver intended to mislead the international community. Blinken warned this week that Russia could carry out a “fake — even a real — attack using chemical weapons” as a pretext for attacking Ukraine.
Earlier this week three U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft experienced “unprofessional intercepts” by Russian planes, the Pentagon said. In one case, a Russian jet came within five feet of an American one, putting the world a twitch away from an international incident.
The situation on the ground changes “hourly,” Harris said during a meeting with Stoltenberg.
“We remain, of course, open to and desirous of diplomacy, as it relates to the dialogue and the discussions we have had with Russia,” she said. “But we are also committed, if Russia takes aggressive action, to ensure there will be severe consequence in terms of the sanctions we have discussed.”
Harris reiterated that sentiment on Saturday in her keynote. Although the 2022 conference is a slimmed-down affair compared to years when there was no pandemic, on Saturday, Harris spoke to more than 30 heads of state and government, 100 ministers and the heads of many of the most important international organizations.
And she and Blinken both have been trying to stress that the United States aims to defend Ukraine, not harm the Russian people, a senior administration official said.
“We want the Russian people to know this is not against the Russian people,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe diplomatic goals. “We’re trying to defend Ukraine against invasion and have no ill will toward the Russian people. That’s why we prefer diplomacy.”
