BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2022) The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, expressed hope on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will join the event via videoconferencing after the Kremlin announced that the leader did not plan to participate in the event.
Putin rejected an invitation to take part in the event in person, Ischinger told Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), but the president might want to address the participants via videoconferencing.
"I definitely do not want to isolate Russia," Ischinger told the news agency.
The chairman added that US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will partake in the conference.
"I am actually assuming that the vice president will take part, even though it has not been formally confirmed yet," Ischinger said.
Apart from Scholz and Zelenskyy, about 35 heads of state and prime ministers are expected to attend the meeting, alongside NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.
The participation of French President Emmanuel Macron is still in question, according to Ischinger.
"That has not yet been finally decided in the Elysee Palace," he said.
The conference will be attended by nearly 100 ministers, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to join the event.
The Munich Security Conference will be held on February 18-20 at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will take place in a mixed format: not more than 600 participants will be present at the venue. The rest will join the conference online. Every day, the participants will be tested for COVID-19, and all of them will have to submit their vaccination certificates.
