- Vice President JD Vance clarified his views on U.S.-European relations, saying they are "on the same civilizational team" and encouraged them to rethink fundamental questions together.
- Regarding Ukraine, Vance expressed optimism about peace possibilities, saying the Trump administration's current goal is Russian and Ukrainian officials speaking to each other directly.
- On foreign trade, Vance said the administration wants to rebalance trade relationships with both China and the EU to treat American exporters and workers "much more fairly."
Following Vice President JD Vance’s pointed remarks on the state of free speech in Europe at the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance again addressed international security officials at an MSC event — and this time, the vice president focused more on the Trump administration’s strategic and economic foreign policy.
Wolfgang Ischinger, the president of the MSC Foundation Council, joined Vance on stage, in a question-and-answer format, and he began by referencing Vance’s previous speech.
“Your speech kicked off a pretty controversial debate about fundamental values unlike anything we have ever had at the Munich Security Conference,” Ischinger said.
He added that the conference had published a brochure about Vance’s speech and the reactions to it from around the world.
Taking a moment to address national and international reactions to his speech, Vance offered a correction. “Everything that I said there applied as much to the previous American administration as it did any government in Europe,” he said.
Vance continued, “It‘s not ‘Europe bad, America good’; it‘s that Europe and the United States, we got a little off track, and I’d encourage us all to get back on track together.”
What does the Trump administration think about Europe?
“I do still very much think Europe and the United States are on the same team,” Vance said.
Vance said he has seen criticism of himself and President Donald Trump that they are “hyper-realists.”
He said that many believe that he thinks of foreign policy “purely in terms of transactional values: what does America get out of it, what does the rest of the world get out of it ...”
“We focus so purely on the transactional value of it that we ignore sometimes the moral or humanitarian side of it, and I think at least with Europe, that‘s not a full encapsulation of my views,” Vance said.
Because of the U.S. and Europe’s interconnected histories and people, “fundamentally, we have to be and we are on the same civilizational team.”
Vance added, “I think we’re in one of these phases where we’re going to have to rethink a lot of big questions, but I do think we should rethink those fundamental questions together.”
Updates on Ukraine-Russia talks
Ischinger told Vance that it appears to both security leaders and to the public that Russia does not seem willing to end the military confrontation in Ukraine.
Vance was more optimistic. “I’m not yet that pessimistic on this,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. I would say that right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflicts.”
“We think they are asking too much,” Vance said.
He added that Trump will “walk away” if he thinks the two countries are not making any progress. “About once every four or five weeks, you will hear some American official or sometimes multiple American officials say, ‘This is a week where we need to make another step.’”
Currently, the Trump administration’s main goal is to get Russian and Ukrainian officials to agree to sit down and talk to one another, and Vance believes without this communication, a resolution between the two countries is “probably impossible.”
“A frustration we’ve had, frankly with both sides, is that they hate each other so much that if you have an hour conversation with either side, the first 30 minutes are just them complaining about some historical grievance from four years ago or five years ago or 10 years ago,” Vance said.
“I understand that people don’t fight wars against each other without a lot of grievance and lot of problems, but we’re trying, as much as we can, to play a constructive role in advancing the peace conversation forward.”
Is the U.S. looking for a strategic deal with China?
Ischinger asked Vance to clarify reports that the U.S. may be interested in a strategic deal with China.
The West, including the U.S. and Europe, are finding themselves “in a very precarious place,” Vance said. “In a world of hyper complicated, globalized supply chains, we find ourselves more and more reliant on countries that don’t have our best interests at heart.”
Vance continued, it is “risky to put all of your eggs in one proverbial basket economically.” He added that Trump is working to implement policies that would stop the nation’s absorption of nearly a trillion dollars in annual surplus.
While the Trump administration wants to rebalance trade, they want to do it “in the right way.” Regarding reports that Chinese officials had reached out to the U.S., Vance said, “Of course we’re going to sit down and talk to them.”
“We want to rebalance trade in the interest of American workers, in the interest of American manufacturers. That is our policy,” he continued. “We think we can do that while preserving dialogue with the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and a lot of other nations all over the world.”
U.S. seeking ‘fairer’ trade policies with EU
“We think most nations, most nations in the world, have been way too hard on American exporters and American firms,” Vance said. “We want to make the entire world a little more open to the products built by American workers.”
Vance urged European nations to drop their tariffs and regulations against the U.S.
“America wants its exporters, and by implication its workers, to be treated much more fairly. In the same way that American markets have been open to European goods, we’d like European markets to be open to American goods,” Vance said.
Vance: Iran getting a nuclear weapon is ‘off the table for the American administration’
With Trump scheduled to visit the Middle East from May 13-16, Vance explained how the president is hoping to reach a deal with Iran.
“We think there is a deal here that would reintegrate Iran into the global economy that would be really good for the Iranian people but would result in the complete cessation of any chance that they get a nuclear weapon,” Vance said, describing this outcome as Option A.
If Option A is very good for the Iranian people, “then Option B is very bad,” Vance said. “It‘s very bad for everybody, and it‘s not what we want, but it‘s better than Option C, which is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That is what is completely off the table for the American administration. No ifs, ands or buts.”
Vance expressed fear that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, other countries would follow resulting in greater nuclear proliferation.