Hello, welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Hill and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman

and Lisa Hasseldine, my colleague who is now currently in the Munich Security Conference. Lisa,

what is the mood like there and what's likely to be discussed over the next couple of days?

I think the mood is one of great anticipation. Of course, if we wind back a year, it was really at the Munich Security

Conference last year that J.D. Barnes, American Vice President, gave that sort of earth-shaking

speech, really, where he set in motion this great crumbling of the relationship between America

and Europe. The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China,

it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within.

The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.

Vance isn't coming this year. It's the Secretary of State Marco Rubio instead. He's due to give a

speech tomorrow. And I think really everybody's going to be looking to see whether Rubio follows suit.

We know that Rubio is kind of less confrontational than Vance generally in terms of how he sort of conducts his

diplomacy. So I don't think we're necessarily expecting to have quite as combative a speech as we did

last year. But nevertheless, kind of to see what exactly Rubio says and what this means for the

relationship with America going forward. And Tim, what's the British angle on this? Because

I've seen a quote in Dave's playbook that Stama, given all these domestic woes, was just hoping to, quote, make it to Munich. He seems to have done that, but what's he going to do there? There's a slight element of Neville Chamberlain about this, isn't there? Let's go and do some international affairs that will all work out fine and get away from, you know, the hideous situation that's unfolding. No, I mean, of course he's relieved to get away from it and, you know, it's always easier for prime ministers when they can go and play the statesmen and get away from those boring domestic travails. I mean, I think the interesting thing to watch, and I don't know the answer to this, is does Starmer's position evolve? I and others have made the case that, you know,

foreign affairs has been the one area which he's got broadly right. He's kept, despite huge

provocations, like the one that Lisa's just been talking about. He's kept the Americans kind of

just about in the game and on the reservation where we need them vis-a-vis Ukraine and a few other things.

And when Trump has sounded off and looked like he was going off to do things that were damaging,

Stama has used what political capital he has with the Americans to try and move things into a more

felicitous disposition. I just wonder now, though, whether having lost his chief of staff

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