Washington, D.C. – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) this evening is setting off for Munich, Germany to join more than 450 world leaders and international security decision-makers at the annual Munich Security Conference. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Whitehouse will lead a delegation of 21 members of Congress to the world’s major global forum for the discussion of security policy. Whitehouse has served as the Democratic lead for the Congressional delegation to the conference since 2013, originally at the invitation of the late Senator John McCain.
“Divisive forces are working to undermine the transatlantic alliance and the multilateral institutions that have helped ensure peace, security, and prosperity in Europe since the Second World War,” said Whitehouse. “Our delegation is heading to Munich to send a bipartisan message that the United States is a stronger, safer nation when we stand with our allies.”
Whitehouse and Graham will participate in a panel discussion on Saturday evening about the growing threat climate change poses to national security. Other panelists include Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Executive Secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Tom Middendorp, General Chairman of the International Military Council on Climate and Security and former Chief of Defence of the Armed Forces of Netherlands.
While in Munich, the congressional delegation will join Cindy McCain for the second annual presentation of a dissertation award named in honor of Senator McCain, who was a fixture at the Munich Security Conference for four decades. The John McCain Dissertation Award is presented for academic contributions in the field of political science, with an emphasis on the transatlantic relationship.
Whitehouse and Graham will also lead the delegation in bilateral meetings with heads of state and government and cabinet ministers from Afghanistan, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, and Turkey, among others, as well as senior officials from NATO and the Kurdish Regional Government.
The Munich Security Conference runs through Sunday, February 16. The annual event was founded in 1963 by Ewald von Kleist, a prominent German publisher.
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