Afghan President leaves for Germany to attend Munich security conference

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is heading to Germany on Thursday to attend the 2020 Munich Security Conference (MSC) and conduct several meetings on the sidelines of the event, Sediq Sediqqi, the presidential spokesman, said.

"President @AshrafGhani [Ashraf Ghani] leaves for #Germany this morning to attend the 56th Munich Security Conference. The president will be meeting with a number of Foreign Heads of delegations at the sideline of @MunSecConf #MSC2020 [the conference] discussing AFG [Afghanistan] peace and security," Sediqqi tweeted.

Sediqqi has not disclosed Ghani's agenda for the conference and has not specified with which foreign officials the Afghan president planned to meet in Munich.

This year's conference in Munich, an annual gathering of the world's foremost security experts, politicians and diplomats for discussions on pertinent global security issues, will be held from Friday to Sunday.

Over 35 heads of state or government, as well as over 100 defense and foreign ministers, are among the attendees, including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to the organizers, the MSC2020 would focus on the so-called phenomenon of Westlessness - the fading concerted common response to critical situations and security challenges by Western countries.