Boris Johnson's speech at the Munich Security Conference on 19th February 2022

Here is the Prime Minister's speech to the Munich Security Conferences yesterday.

 

A couple of extracts:

"At this moment of extreme danger for the world, it has seldom been more vital to preserve our unity and resolve, and that was the theme of my discussion last night with fellow leaders, including President Biden, President Macron, Chancellor Scholz and Prime Minister Draghi, as well as the leaders of NATO and the EU.

And as I said to President Putin during our last conversation, we in the UK still hope that diplomacy and dialogue may yet succeed.

But we also have to be unflinchingly honest about the situation today.

When over 130,000 Russian troops are gathering on the borders of Ukraine, and when more than 100 battalion tactical groups threaten that European country.

We must be united against that threat because we should be in no doubt what is at stake here.

If Ukraine is invaded and if Ukraine is overwhelmed, we will witness the destruction of a democratic state, a country that has been free for a generation, with a proud history of elections.

And every time that Western ministers have visited Kyiv, we’ve assured the people of Ukraine and their leaders that we stand four-square behind their sovereignty and independence.

How hollow, how meaningless, how insulting those words would seem if – at the very moment when their sovereignty and independence is imperilled – we simply look away.

If Ukraine is invaded the shock will echo around the world and those echoes will be heard in East Asia and they will be heard in Taiwan.

When I spoke to the Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia this week, they left me in no doubt that the economic and political shocks would be felt on the far side of the world.

So let me be clear about the risk.

The risk now is that people will draw the conclusion that aggression pays and that might is right.

So we should not underestimate the gravity of this moment and what is at stake.

As I speak to you today, we do not fully know what President Putin intends but the omens are grim and that is why we must stand strong together.

The UK has worked with the European Union and the United States to put together the toughest and strongest package of sanctions, and I spoke recently to President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the measures prepared by the EU, in the closest coordination with our own.

And if Russia invades its neighbour, we will sanction Russian individuals and companies of strategic importance to the Russian state; and we will make it impossible for them to raise finance on the London capital markets; and we will open up the matryoshka dolls of Russian-owned companies and Russian-owned entities to find the ultimate beneficiaries within."

The YouTube clip shows the whole speech: you can also find the text of the whole speech on the government website here.

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