The conference, known as 'Davos for defence', will take place in the southern German city on Feb. 17-19./CGTN/Johannes Pleschberger
Munich will once again be the center of international diplomacy on Friday as the German city prepares to host the world's biggest security conference, almost a year after the start of the war in Ukraine.
More than 45 heads of state and government will be assembling at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel from Friday to Sunday for intensive debates that are likely to be dominated by the Ukrainian conflict and the latest disagreements between the U.S. and China.
The Munich Security Conference's organizers have refused to invite delegates from Russia and Iran, because of the war in Ukraine and the Iranian government's crackdown on recent protests respectively.
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China's top diplomat Wang Yi is among the high profile delegates attending, and is expected to lay out China's view of the global security situation. There are reports that Chinese and U.S. officials could hold talks at the conference, but neither side has confirmed that the meeting will take place.
It would be their first in-person talks after the U.S. shot down what it described as a Chinese 'spy balloon' off the coast of South Carolina. China has strongly criticized the downing of the object, saying it was a unmanned airship used for gathering meteorological research that had inadvertently strayed into U.S. airspace.
Wang is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Europe since the 20th Chinese Communist Party National Congress.
"We are open to dialogue when it is in our interest to do so and we believe the conditions are right," said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during a news conference on Monday. "I know there's been a report about a potential meeting in Munich, but I have nothing to announce today."
Technical preparations at the Bayerischer Hof hotel, the main venue of the security summit./CGTN/Pleschberger
Some political observers think the 'balloon' could have been an attempt to disrupt China-U.S. relations by unknown parties.
"My sense is that the Chinese leadership has no interest in escalating the conflict with the United States and neither does the U.S. side," Tim Buthe, an international relations professor at the Technical University of Munich, told CGTN.
"But not everybody on either side is necessarily on board with the de-escalating agenda."
With the conflict in Ukraine continuing to rage, Buthe thinks delegates in Munich are ready to work on possible peace proposals.
"Moving away from the current military confrontation to at least a halt in military hostilities and maybe a long-term peace proposal will come out of it as well," he said. "But don't expect magic out of three days of meetings."