Franco Frattini at the Munich Security Conference in Washington
The Munich Security Conference (MSC) continues its successful series of “MSC Core Group Meeting” events and holds the fifth edition of the Core Group Meetings on November 5 and 6, 2013 in Washington D.C. Transatlantic relations as well as current questions of cyber security and the negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as well as Syria, Iran and West-East-relationswill be among the main topics to discuss.
Under the patronage of Henry Kissinger, former Foreign Minister of the U.S., and chaired by MSC chairman, Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, and the presidents of the Atlantic Council, Frederick Kempe, and Brookings Institution, Strobe Talbott, the meeting will convene close to sixty high-ranking decision-makers and experts from Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
High ranking representatives of international politics and economyAmong others, participants will include: the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Belgium, Pieter de Crem, Miroslav Lajčák, Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Slovakia, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, former Federal Minister of Defence, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, as well as high-ranking representatives of parliaments and academia. On the part of the U.S., MSC expects to welcome Senator John McCain, and the former Foreign Ministers Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. Jane Harman, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, David Ignatius, Co-editor and columnist of The Washington Post, Matt Thomlinson, Chief Information Officer of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing and Hans-Jörg Rudloff, Chairman of Barclays Investment Bank are also participating.
Work to rebuild a transatlantic trust
Shots of Franco Frattini on “Syria and beyond”“Foreign fighters and weapons continue to enter the country but humanitarian aid to the civilian population is constantly blocked.” “There is a clear risk that the demands for change that brought in March 2011 the Syrian people to ask for the resignation of Assad, could be in the end frustrated by the growing influence in the country of extremist groups like ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra””The involvement of Iran, Hizballah and other foreign fighters inside Syria, poses a threat, to both Syria’s territorial integrity and to moderate forces, presenting at the same time a high risk of spill-over to neighboring countries. There is an urgent need for a political transition, through the establishment by mutual consent of a Transitional Governing Body””For its part, NATO has updated measures for the defense of member country Turkey and no-one should doubt the resolve of the Allies to defend one of its members in case it was attacked, in accordance with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty”
