One headline writer took an acidic view of United State vice president Joe Biden’s speech to the Munich Security Conference, saying that Condoleezza Rice could have written it.
This was a dissenting note about a performance that was well-applauded and critically well-received, especially for lines like "America needs the world just as the world needs America".

Key themes in the speech by Biden, who, in effect, was there as the spokesperson for his boss Barack Obama, who was back in Washington grappling with the senate over the economic recovery package, included that the US had a new willingness to enter into dialogue and wanted to work on the basis of international co-operation.

Biden’s message was not quite taken from the Rice and Bush playbook. Yes, the line on Iran continued to be tough, although there was a change in nuance of approach. Yes, the missile shield in Europe plan was still on the agenda, but there was an affirmation of a willingness to develop the scheme in co-ordination with other players. Yes, there was the recruiting call for help in Afghanistan, technically not a change in principle from the line of the previous presidency but the words "coalition" and "willing" were not heard in any kind of proximity to each other.

One of the core aspects of the Munich conferences, since the first was held in 1962, has always been the sending of signals to Moscow.
Biden sent at least one very clearly. A rejection of Moscow’s South Ossetia independence scheme and as a wider principle, a rejection of one of the pillars of Russian foreign policy, the notion that it has a natural sphere of influence over its near neighbours. Whether the US and its Western allies ever will succeed in disabusing Moscow of this notion remains to be seen.

However, Biden’s statements were an affirmation of the principle that the practices of the Cold War and of the predecessor 19th-century Great Game, that the planet may be sectioned into Great Power spheres of influence, are no longer acceptable to Washington. There will be no more apportioning of states to East or West according to a plan scribbled on a piece of paper by a Big Three. Or that is Washington’s stated hope, at least.

Probably consciously crafted for those who capture soundbites and write headlines, Biden had an overarching message on US-Russian relations: "It’s time...to press the reset button and revisit the many areas where we can and should work together."

German chancellor Angela Merkel emphasised the theme of international co-operation foreign and security policy, holding forth on the theme of "networked security" and finding a backer in French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who said that security and prosperity in the 21st century could be guaranteed only by co-operation among nations. This co-operation should not be limited to Europe and North America, but also should include the emerging nations in Asia and South America.

Sarkozy’s signal to Russia was to call for new confidence in relations between the West and Moscow to get past the trauma of the January 2009 natural gas crisis. Russia should be engaged in a new security architecture "from Vancouver to Vladivostok" with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation as a suitable framework for achieving this, he said.

"I don’t think the Russia of today is a military threat to Nato or the EU," Sarkozy said.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Czech deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra and EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana all expressed concern about the negative impact that the natural gas crisis had on relations with Russia.

Vondra told the conference: "It’s too late to start building a pipeline when the gas stops flowing and too late to start building a shield when the missile is in the air."
Nato secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer spelt it out: "We...need to move beyond a 19th-century ‘Great Game’ idea of sphere of influence."
Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko told the Munich conference: "I will do my best to prevent any stress for the EU just because relations between Russia and Ukraine were not settled." Ukraine wanted "constructive options for co-operation with Russia", Tymoshenko said.

Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, asked at the conference whether Moscow, in turn, was ready to take concrete steps to confirm its preparedness to work with the US, said: "It is not an oriental bazaar and we do not trade the way people do in a bazaar."

However, he said that the two sides should look at improving relations in a range of areas, above all arms control. Moscow was ready to negotiate with Washington on a new strategic arms reductions treaty, which needed to be agreed before the end of this year. "Negotiations will be launched as soon as the US partners are ready...We need to set up a new mechanism for reduction control and verification of strategic arms," he said.

In a speech to the conference, he said that a system for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction should be "strengthened through international co-operation and leaders here should naturally be the US and Russia. Moscow is ready to work closely with the new Obama administration". Ivanov said.