Russian, Iranian leaders, AfD not invited to Munich Security talks

As Germany prepares to host the Munich Security Conference later this month, several international leaders and German political parties are to be excluded from this year's gathering.

This information came from the chairman of the defence forum.

The governments of Russia and Iran have not been invited to join some 50 leaders and around 100 ministers due to attend the meeting which is taking place from February 16 to 18.

The annual conference is an independent forum for security policy decision makers to debate current and future challenges. Attendees usually include heads of states, governments and international organizations, ministers, lawmakers and senior defence figures.

"A few days ago, the Russian president said that he would be happy to negotiate, but not with this Ukrainian government. In other words, there is no serious willingness to talk," said Conference chair Christoph Heusgen, referring to Vladimir Putin.

"And that is why we have said that we are not inviting the Russian government, but we are inviting Russians from non-governmental organizations, exiled politicians."

Heusgen took the same approach last year at the first conference following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"In the case of Iran, we are hearing from the German government and also from the Americans that there is no interest in talks. As things stand at the moment, we are only inviting Iranians from non-governmental organizations."

Heusgen also said some German political parties would not be at the meeting, naming the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which was also excluded last year.

Of the parties represented in the Bundestag, the new populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has also not been invited, Heusgen said. "The BSW MPs in the Bundestag are not elected as BSW politicians, but as left-wingers," Heusgen told dpa, explaining his decision.

For a long time, it was customary for politicians from all parties represented in the Bundestag to be invited to the conference.

Heusgen deviated from this practice last year when he chaired the conference for the first time and did not invite any AfD politicians.

"I said at the time that I didn't want to roll out the red carpet for a right-wing extremist party," he told dpa. He said some had doubted this approach but he believed his decision was the right one. "I will therefore not be inviting the AfD this year either."

According to Heusgen, the right-wing group Werteunion, whose chairman Hans-Georg Maaßen is planning to found a party, also has no place at the security conference.

"We're not inviting either of them, so we'll have to see how that goes first."