In remarks at a Munich Security Conference event in Washington, D.C., Vice President JD Vance spoke about the U.S.-Europe relationship.
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00:00Good morning, everybody. Wow, what a crowd. What a crowd. Mr. Vice President, we're so happy to have you here this morning. This is obviously the highlight of our Munich Security Conference meeting in Washington, D.C. I hope not. I hope not. It is the highlight. It's really a great honor to welcome you here this morning.
00:20Actually, for those of you who have not been regular participants in Munich, this is the third time already that the Vice President is participating in a Munich Security Conference event.
00:32When you came to Munich last February, your speech kicked off a pretty controversial debate about fundamental values, unlike anything we have ever had at the Munich Security Conference.
00:46And actually, we published a brochure, a copy of which you'll have on the way out, about the speech and the reactions to it from around the world.
00:59This intense debate about how fundamental values, how the freedom of speech, the rule of law should be interpreted and applied continues to this day.
01:12But when we prepared for this meeting with your team yesterday, we agreed and they agreed that today we should try to focus on current challenges of foreign policy, which confront us together.
01:31So thank you again for making yourself available. We don't have a great deal of time, so I'll not come up with a long introduction.
01:41And I just want to get us started. The first time you came to Munich, you were still a senator from Ohio.
01:48What I associate with Ohio is the Dayton Agreement. 30 years ago, in 1995, I was at that time actually the German negotiator.
02:00So I actually lived in Dayton, Ohio for one entire month.
02:03And this, and why is this important? Because it was through U.S. intervention, it was through U.S. intervention that peace was brought about in Europe, in the Balkans at that time.
02:20So if I may, let me ask my first question about the U.S. and Europe.
02:30A distinguished former U.S. diplomat, Richard Holbrook, wrote almost exactly 30 years ago in a foreign affairs article that the United States is and should remain a European power.
02:47Now, today, 30 years ago, my question is, do you think that the United States should continue to see itself as a European power?
03:00In Munich, remember, you actually said, and I quote, we are still on the same team.
03:07Are we? And what does that mean for the U.S. presence in Europe and relationship with Europe? First question.
03:14Sure. Well, first of all, thank you. And I'm sorry, my microphone apparently is broken, but we have another one.
03:19So that's good. So everybody can hear me now, right? Everybody can hear me? Great. Good.
03:24Yeah. So first of all, thrilled to be here and thrilled to have this conversation. I've been looking forward to it.
03:30And yeah, I do still very much think that the United States and Europe are on the same team.
03:36And I think that this is, you know, sometimes I've been criticized as a hyper-realist, right?
03:42I think of foreign policy purely in terms of transactional values. What does the America get out of it?
03:48What do the, you know, rest of the world get out of it?
03:50And try to, you know, focus so purely on the transactional value of it that we ignore sometimes the humanitarian or the moral side of it.
03:59And I think at least with Europe, that's actually not a full encapsulation of my views because I think that, you know, European civilization and American civilization, European culture and American culture are very much linked.
04:12And they're always going to be linked.
04:14And I think it's completely ridiculous to think that you're ever going to be able to drive a firm wedge between the United States and Europe.
04:21Now, that doesn't mean we're not going to have disagreements.
04:23And of course, you know, you brought up the speech earlier.
04:25It doesn't mean that Europeans won't criticize the United States or the United States won't criticize Europe.
04:30But I do think fundamentally we have to be and we are on the same civilizational team.
04:36And I think obviously there's a big question about what that means in the 21st century.
04:40I think, you know, obviously the president and I believe that it means a little bit more European burden sharing on the defense side.
04:47I think that it means that all of us, frankly, on both sides of the Atlantic have gotten a little bit too comfortable with the security posture of the last 20 years.
04:56And that, frankly, that security posture is not adequate to meet the challenges of the next 20 years.
05:01So there are a lot of ways in which this alliance will evolve and change.
05:05In the same way that the alliance evolved and changed from 1945 to 1975 and from 1975 to 2005, I do think that we're in one of these phases where we're going to have to rethink a lot of big questions.
05:17But I do think that we should rethink those big questions together.
05:20That is a fundamental belief of both me and the president.
05:23And, you know, you mentioned this is my third time speaking with the Munich Security Conference Group, obviously the first couple of times we're in Munich.
05:30And I always remember very fondly, of course, that the very first time it was as a United States senator representing Ohio.
05:38And I'm glad you got to spend a month in Dayton.
05:39I love Dayton.
05:40It's kind of the closest big city, if you can call it a big city, to where I grew up.
05:44But on that first panel, I was on that panel and also David Lammy, who at the time was a loathly member in opposition.
05:51And, of course, now is the great foreign secretary of the United Kingdom.
05:55And he and I have become good friends.
05:56So I still think that this European alliance is very important.
06:01But I think that for it to be important and for us to be real friends with each other, I think that we are very much real friends.
06:07We've got to talk about the big questions.
06:09And I know that's an important part of what this entire group does.
06:12So I'm glad to be here.