MKsports 2025, before the start of the 61st Munich Security Conference, which took place from February 14 to 16, 2025 at the hotel in Munich, Germany. Photo: Li Aixin/GT" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-02-16/9f01d241-8367-405d-b38f-b949af21847a.jpeg" />

A view of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof on February 13, 2025, before the start of the 61st Munich Security Conference, which took place from February 14 to 16, 2025 at the hotel in Munich, Germany. Photo: Li Aixin/GT

Editor's Note: 

The three-day 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) concluded on Sunday. The tone of mainstream Western media is dominated by headlines such as the US "stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe's leaders" and US speech "laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance," as US Vice President JD Vance launched an ideological assault on Europe. "Europe is undergoing perhaps the most difficult period since the end of the Cold War," Sevim Dagdelen (Dagdelen), the foreign policy spokesperson of the group "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" (BSW) in the German Bundestag and the BSW's top candidate in Berlin in the federal elections on February 23, shared her insights with Global Times (GT) reporters Li Aixin and Xing Xiaojing. For Germany and Europe, developing strong relations with China and fostering global partnerships has become an existential imperative, Dagdelen suggests. 

GT: What do you think of US Vice President JD Vance's criticism of Europe? What is the position of Europe in the transatlantic relationship?

Dagdelen:Europe is undergoing perhaps the most difficult period since the end of the Cold War. On the one hand, it has, to its own detriment, allowed itself to be dragged into a self-destructive economic war against Russia and into an emerging illegal sanctions regime against China. On the other hand, it is becoming the target of an economic war waged by the current US administration and is supposed to continue paying for the war in Ukraine. The blind allegiance of the European NATO countries to the US is thus becoming a question of survival, also because they will be forced to rearm on a massive scale within the military pact in the future. While circumstances call for the emancipation of Europe, not one single government has the courage to put the interests of its people first.

GT: How would you characterize the defining aspect of this year's MSC? 

Dagdelen:It speaks volumes that a party such as the BSW, which is explicitly oriented toward peace and disarmament, was not invited to it. The approach taken in previous years will, unfortunately, be further intensified in Munich. The focus here is on the demands being made for an extreme NATO arms policy. The US president wants to spend 5 percent of GDP on the military and defense in addition to a foreign and security policy that is geared to the interests of US oligarchs. Europe, with its involvement in the US' economic and proxy wars, is falling completely by the wayside in the process. In the future, Germany would have to spend well over 40 percent of its budget on the military in order to help enforce US interests around the world. The result would be a military state that exposes its own people to extreme risks. 

The surprising thing is that the NATO countries do not seem to learn any lessons from the self-destructive economic war against Russia, but are instead contemplating extending sanctions to China. After the loss of a pillar of German industry in the form of inexpensive energy from Russia, Germany is now threatened with complete collapse as trade relations with China are increasingly being geared to restrictive directives from Washington.

And I fear that although the agenda of the MSC propagates "multipolarity," people are at pains to hold firm to the illusion of a unipolar world order. Above all, this shift in terminology reflects the difficulty of trying to garner support in the Global South for what is essentially a neo-colonial posture, with which NATO, as a global force for maintaining order, claims the right to tell other countries around the world what to do.

GT: How do you respond to the claim that China's push for a multipolar order is mere rhetoric to bolster its strategic rivalry with the US? 

Dagdelen:This reflects an awareness of the defeat of NATO and the US in the global conflict in the wake of the war in Ukraine. An attempt is being made to win back the lost Global South. There is to be a rollback, with even stronger sanctions against recalcitrant countries such as South Africa. The ultimate goal is to isolate China diplomatically along the same lines as the approach taken toward Russia. Washington's pressure on Panama was merely a foretaste of things to come. A new US imperialism is looming on the horizon, one that seeks to take even greater advantage of its European allies than before and which does not shy away from direct annexation. This time around, however, this is taking place under the banner of a multipolar world. The question remains whether the US efforts to end the proxy war in Ukraine are primarily motivated by considerations of being able to put even more resources into the conflict with China.

GT: At the MSC, discussions on multipolarity and the decline of Western dominance gained momentum. How do you view this transformation, and what do you see as a constructive path for the West to adapt?

Dagdelen:My impression is that the reality of a multipolar world has still not sunk in among the elites in the West. The shift toward the Global South is often still characterized by arrogance and a neo-colonial sense of entitlement. We need a fundamental political sea change here, one that respects the sovereignty of states and refrains from lecturing the Global South.

GT: Amid this evolving global landscape, how do you think Germany and Europe ought to perceive and engage with China?

Dagdelen:China should be seen as an important partner. We need to return to a policy of détente and balancing interests. Both sides could benefit from this. The West's hypocritical foreign policy, with its proxy wars and sanctions, is letting itself down.

All of the signs unfortunately point to the fact that the new US administration is even less interested in good Germany-China relations than before and that it is even bent on hindering or indeed destroying these relations for the benefit of US oligarchs.

It has become an existential question for Germany and Europe to develop and expand good relations with China, and not only in the economic sphere. Some people continue to believe that Europe stands a chance as a bridgehead for the US, as Zbigniew Brzezinski once put it. The current US administration's plans for Greenland and Canada go even further, setting in motion something akin to a renewal of US imperialism. The US will seek to destroy Europe's relations with China in the process. It is therefore an existential question for Europe whether it will go with the flow or seek to build good relations around the world.

However, anyone who unconditionally places their trust in military transatlanticism will no longer have the strength to do that. We have to counter a sense of doom and gloom, this blatant nihilism on the part of the transatlantic elites in Europe. The emancipation of Europe has yet to materialize.