AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Vice President JD Vance is representing the Trump administration in Europe. And the Munich Security Conference kicked off today with a speech by Vance. While European leaders were hoping to hear more clarity on the Trump administration's plans for Russia and Ukraine, they received something completely different from the U.S. Vice President. We're joined now by NPR Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz to talk about that and much more from the very first day of the conference. Hi, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Ok, I know it was a packed day in Munich, a lot of news, but I do want to start with Vice President Vance's speech, and its, shall we say, cool reception. What did Vance say?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, it was what Vance did not say that was at first surprising. He didn't mention Ukraine at all, really, just in passing at the start of the speech. And after a week when President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had a lot to say about negotiating with Russia to put an end to the war, European leaders were sort of expecting Vance to add some clarity to this, but instead, Vance lectured European leaders about democracy.
CHANG: Wow. And what did he lecture them on exactly?
SCHMITZ: So he blamed Europe's political establishment for ignoring people in political parties that are not in the mainstream - in other words, far-right or populist parties that, in countries like Germany, are starting to gain some popularity. Here in Germany, the Alternative For Germany party, a nationalist anti-immigrant party, is left out of government by the country's mainstream parties because they consider it a threat to Germany's democracy, and given Germany's Nazi history, this is a pretty sensitive topic here. But...
CHANG: Right.
SCHMITZ: ...The day after Vance visited a concentration camp, he told Europe's power base here that they should listen more to people in nonmainstream parties like the Alternative For Germany. Here's what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.
SCHMITZ: And Ailsa, the European leaders in the room, at this point, were pretty shocked and confused by this. There was tepid reaction, and at one point, Vance paused after he made a point, and nobody applauded, so there was a sort of feeling of awkwardness in the room.
CHANG: Oof. OK, well, to go back to Ukraine, Vance didn't focus on it. Did anyone from the U.S. talk about Ukraine at the conference?
SCHMITZ: Yeah. In a roundtable discussion, Senator Lindsey Graham talked about how, under the right circumstances, Ukraine could perhaps become part of NATO someday. But then it was Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy's turn to speak. And he took off his translation headphones, and he spoke in English about how he saw the issue. He said he'd met with both Presidents Biden and Trump about Ukraine becoming part of NATO. And here's what he said their attitude has always been.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: United States - they never saw us in NATO. They just spoke about it. But they really didn't want us in NATO.
SCHMITZ: And, Ailsa, he's obviously being pretty candid about this, and it's clear from what both President Trump and his defense secretary said this week that Ukraine is not being considered to be a future NATO member by the U.S. leadership.
CHANG: Yeah, I mean, we heard a lot from the Trump administration this week on Russia and Ukraine. And I'm just wondering, like, how are European leaders characterizing the message they think they're getting from the U.S.?
SCHMITZ: They're concerned. You know, one speaker who I think summed up Europe's reaction to all this pretty well was from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. I've covered him for years, and he usually gives pretty tame speeches, but today, he just blasted the new Trump administration in a scathing speech. He called on Europeans to not be paralyzed by Trump's flood of executive orders and announcements, and he said this new U.S. administration holds a totally different viewpoint from Europe's.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: He's saying here that it is a worldview that shows no regard for established rules or for partnerships and trust that have grown over a long time. And he said it is not in the interest of the international community to allow this worldview to become the dominant paradigm. And then he said, the absence of rules must not be the guiding principle of a new world order.
(APPLAUSE)
SCHMITZ: You know, and he finished his speech by criticizing how tech entrepreneurs and populists love to, quote, "disrupt the market" and that they think they can do that to democracy, too. And he said at the end, democracy is not a business model.
CHANG: That is NPR's Rob Schmitz in Munich. Thank you, Rob.
SCHMITZ: Thanks, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
