Vance Calls for European Self-Sufficiency in Address to World Leaders

The vice president highlighted the need to boost industrialization to bolster economic and regional security.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Wolfgang Ischinger, president of the Foundation Council, participate in a discussion at the Munich Leaders meeting hosted by the Munich Security Conference at the Willard Hotel in Washington, on May 7, 2025. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance emphasized a transformation of U.S.–European relations in an address to the Munich Security Conference in Washington on May 7.

“Fundamentally, we have to be, and we are on the same civilizational team,” Vance said. “There’s a big question about what that means in the 21st century.”