As Air Force Two taxied to Germany for takeoff, Vice President Kamala Harris walked the plane handing out heart-shaped Valentine's Day cookies. It was good practice for her trip to the Munich Security Conference, where her job will be to reassure European allies that America still loves them.
Arriving in Munich as House Republicans block military aid to Ukraine and former President Donald J. Trump vows to encourage Russia to attack “criminal” NATO allies, Ms. Harris has the unenviable task of leading the European state – and to tell heads of government not to worry too much about these things. And she faces the challenge of arguing that Mr. Trump and his supporters are wrong about the value of alliances.
While the meetings she and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will have in Munich will be aimed at reassuring European leaders, the speech she will give at the conference on Friday will be just as aimed at the American audience set up at home. Without mentioning Mr. Trump by name, officials said they wanted to use the platform to forcefully rebut the former president, who is seeking to retake his old post, arguing that international partnerships are vital to American security, not a burden that can be thrown away carelessly.
It will also be a chance for her to prove herself on the world stage in an election year when her candidate, President Biden, faces questions about his age. While no one in the White House would say this too openly, the challenge for Ms. Harris on the campaign trail is to show that she is up to the task so that voters don't have to worry about re-electing an 81-year-old president who has would do 86 at the end of a second term.
“I am ready to serve. There’s no doubt about it,” Ms. Harris told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published this week. Everyone who interacts with her, she said, “walks away fully aware of my leadership qualities.”
Munich has been a popular platform for Ms. Harris to show this for years. In 2022, she spoke just days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “pivotal moment” for the world. Last year, she used the conference to accuse Russia of “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, raising the diplomatic stakes of the war.
She was already planning to speak about the dangers of American isolationism this year, even before Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally last week that if re-elected, not only would he not defend NATO members attacked by Russia if they “didn’t would pay enough,” but he would even “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want” with the Allies. The resulting excitement made their theme all the more salient.
A White House official, who watched the speech on condition of anonymity, said she would use it to denounce the “failed ideologies of isolationism, authoritarianism and unilateralism” espoused by Mr. Trump and argued that his approach to foreign policy led to one … world of disorder. It will focus on what the official described as four options: global engagement versus isolationism, international rules and norms versus chaos, democratic values versus authoritarianism, and collective action versus unilateralism.
Perhaps equally important, she will try to convince world leaders that she and Mr. Biden will win in November, despite growing doubts among European leaders and analysts who are already discussing contingencies for a second Think about the Trump presidency.
Former Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who traveled with Ms. Harris on Air Force Two, said the vice president would be forced to explain the intransigence on Capitol Hill to approve more Ukraine aid, even though she was following the Most assessments have majority support for a non-partisan party. “The real villain is Congress, which thrives on blaming the other side for not solving problems,” Ms. Harman said. “Trump is exploiting this brilliantly, even though I hate to give him credit.”
But many Europeans are also unsure about Ms. Harris herself, claiming that she has not yet formed a clear identity. “Does she have any views and does she have any particular knowledge?” asked François Heisbourg, senior adviser for Europe at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Who is she?” He said he didn't mean it in a “derogatory” way, adding: “It's just a confusion.”
Ms. Harris will have the opportunity to define herself in a series of meetings with world leaders. She will sit down separately on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The sessions are expected to focus on how Ukraine can stand up to Russian forces while waiting for U.S. military aid, which may or may not come.
European officials are increasingly predicting that a U.S. withdrawal could lead to further Russian aggression. German and Estonian officials said Russia could attack a NATO member within five to eight years, while Denmark's defense chief put the window of danger at three to five years.
The gloom in Munich will require intense American reassurance, analysts said. “If hand-wringing was an Olympic sport, we would give out a lot of medals,” said Heather A. Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a group that promotes transatlantic relations.
Amid European uncertainty, the White House announced Thursday that Mr. Biden would host Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a joint meeting at the White House on March 12. It will be their first meeting since a centrist-progressive coalition won elections in October, ousting a nationalist government seen as allied with Mr Trump.
“The leaders will reaffirm their unwavering support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s brutal war of conquest,” the White House said in a statement announcing the visit. “The meeting also coincides with the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO and underscores the United States and Poland’s shared ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance, which keeps us all safer.”