With her appearance in Munich, the US Vice President is following in the footsteps of Joe Biden.
(Photo: Reuters)
new York Kamala Harris made his first appearance at the security conference in Munich in the middle of the Ukraine crisis. The US Vice President will give her speech this Saturday and meet with government representatives from all over the world. Meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the heads of government of the three Baltic states are planned for Friday. A senior government official said that she also hopes to have another exchange with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
With her performance, the 57-year-old is following in the footsteps of President Joe Biden, who, as Vice President of Barack Obama, attended the Munich meeting several times. But the Security Conference, which has been in session since 1963, has seldom been of such importance.
It is unlikely that any Russian government representatives will be present. But the meeting in the Bayerischer Hof gives the NATO countries in particular an opportunity to exchange ideas in these tense times. In addition to Harris, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will also be there, whose presence was only announced on Wednesday. The Americans are particularly well represented this time.
For Harris, Munich also offers the opportunity to prove himself on the world stage. At home, the Vice President had recently become noticeably quiet. She actually started with great expectations and was celebrated as the first African-American and Asian-American female vice president.
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Kamala Harris: Hardly solvable tasks at home
She was born in California to a Tamil Indian breast cancer researcher and a Jamaican economist. She attended high school in Canada, after studying law in the USA she rose to become Attorney General of California. As Vice President, she was already considered the natural successor, also because of Biden’s advanced age.
>> Read more about the Ukraine conflict here: USA see signs of preparations for a Russian attack
But after more than a year, she is in a difficult position, her public appearances are rare, and she does poorly in the polls. This is probably also due to the fact that Biden has given her almost unsolvable tasks. Among other things, she is responsible for stemming the flow of illegal immigrants from Central America. She should fight the reasons for the exodus in the south and at the same time roll back Donald Trump’s draconian border policy. An almost impossible balancing act that makes Harris the enemy of the Republicans.
Your second major task is to reform the electoral law to make it easier for all sections of the population to vote. However, several Republican states are currently reversing innovations such as absentee ballots and ballot boxes; reform is met with considerable resistance in many places.
Now she should score in Munich on the world stage in the Ukraine crisis. In her speech, Harris will emphasize the renewed unity of the NATO partners, said a senior US government official. “We believe the West is more united and NATO is stronger than it has been in decades,” the official added. Harris will emphasize that this unit is a strength that will allow the West to respond quickly and harshly to any further Russian aggression.
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