treaty a nuclear arms foreign minister heikal must held talks with russian counterpart sergey lavrov only on the russia's current behavior with the oil and if treaty hints at the negative impact this could have for the security of everyone involved and especially for us in europe we're going to given the crisis surrounding the preservation of the i.m.f. treaty we need greater dialogue between americans europeans and russians of. high level u.s. representatives like ivanka trump are attending the conference. before arriving in munich u.s. vice president mike pence visited the former concentration camp auschwitz on his flight from poland to germany he accused iran of conducting itself with quote the same and semitic hatred as the nazis. the berlin film festival draws to a close this weekend with the jury deliberating over which films will pick up the coveted silver and gold and their awards is a look at some of the films critics favor for the top prizes. just what are these six people thinking many wish they knew just a few hours remain for the jury surrounding presidential yet be nour

thirteen since then a third have returned home around two hundred led to do dat foreign minister heikal mass says it's difficult to check if prisoners are actually truman citizens five if this were the case necessary to check to what extent they were involved in fighting for oh yes which would result in criminal proceedings having to the opened against them. and these people can come to germany only if he's ensured that they can immediately be taken into custody. good normally or. to prosecute are rehabilitate the question of how to deal with the returning i as fighters and their families is a major challenge for germany and for other european countries as well. we've got team coverage of the storm. and tonight here at the big table i'm joined by a member so he's an iraqi journalist who has traveled to syria he has met some of the former i s fighters also with this is our political correspondents i mean young from our parliamentary studio to both of you welcome me am i want to start with you you said you just got back from syria and you actually met a german national he went to syria to

i mean there have been some attempts if you look for instance the two german foreign minister heikal mass he did travel to moscow he did try to talk to sergey lavrov the russian foreign minister and but the direction was sort of cool we know lover of i mean he's been in the business for decades and he has a particularly sort of. cold smile if you doesn't want to engage through something and somebody and so he. really got sort of the cold shoulder in russia he traveled to washington as we heard he talked to the american administration but he didn't really find any open ears there either so the attempts they are making more or less bound to fail and they know this barbara vessel with the view from back in you foreign ministers meeting in bucharest thanks barbara. let's get a quick check of some other stories making news around the world at least sixty people were killed in monday's attack by boko haram militants in northeastern nigeria that's according to amnesty international the united nations says that tens of thousands of people have fled from the city of ronn to neighboring camero

by mia is with me is heikal mask the german foreign minister thank you for being here with much of ella today there are many differences of opinion among the countries represented in munich here today for example regarding the line of missile treaty but you how can germany respond to russia and the united states saying they're withdrawing from it. does or slant on the family can start and sarkozy taking dolls . they are definite i guess well for now the treaty has been put on hold by both sides there's now a six month time limit before the cancellation takes effect and since the russian breached this agreement by developing nuclear mid range missile systems it's actually very simple to reinstate the treaty by restoring contract compliance within those six months whether it will turn out that way is uncertain because they could have already done that in recent weeks so when it comes to the issue of disarmament an arms control i think we should not just be talking to russia and the u.s. but to china soon and those talks also need to cover new types of weapons robotic weapons or cyber weap

german foreign minister heikal mass was quick to state that germany would oppose the deployment of new u.s. missiles. most other western europeans have a similar view. but eastern european countries such as poland and the baltic state see things differently they regard the presence of u.s. troops a nuclear weapons in europe as a shield to protect them against threats from russia. the nato secretary general is keen to put on a united front. not particularly does not have any plans to deploy a new land based nuclear missiles in europe we have many other options and we look at them. with moscow managed to drive a wedge between european states when it comes to nuclear arms. so i don't pose no let me take us back to your opening statement you say the west could quote unquote win in the arms race if it stops yammering and simply builds missile systems and installs missile defense but if german foreign minister mass and their secretary general stoltenberg are both rolling out stationing no weapons is your scenario really realistic. mosse is playing to the gallery right i mean the social democ

thirteen since then a third have returned home around two hundred led to do dat foreign minister heikal mass says it's difficult to track if prisoners are actually truman citizens stuff i ve ever if this were the case it would be necessary to check to what extent they were involved in fighting for oil yes which would result in criminal proceedings having to the opened against them. and these people can come to germany only if he's ensures that they can immediately be taken into custody. good normally or. to prosecute our rehabilitate the question of how to deal with the returning i as fighters and their families is a major challenge for germany and for other european countries as well. let's bring in our political course. on that simon young he's on that story for us tonight good evening to you simon so you know that's quite an ultimatum that the u.s. president has made to these european countries but let's just deal with the issue at hand right here in germany are authorities even ready to take these people back to what brant as you say there are about forty of these people with german

thirteen since then a third have returned home around two hundred are led to do dat foreign minister heikal mass says it's difficult to track if prisoners are actually truman citizens stuff i have ever if this were the case necessary to check to what extent they were involved in fighting for i yes which would result in criminal proceedings having to be opened against them. and these people can come to germany only if he's ensures that they can immediately be taken into custody as i'm good normally or. to prosecute our rehabilitate the question of how to deal with the returning i as fighters and their families is a major challenge for germany and for other european countries as well. for more let's bring in our correspondent max hoffman. in brussels that's where e.u. foreign ministers are currently meeting max donald trump is demanding european countries take back hundreds of their nationals detained while fighting for i as in syria what's the reaction from e.u. foreign ministers in brussels most euro foreign ministers here in brussels at the moment do recognize that of course this is a prob

start first supporter of nato and this gives us some reassurance that germany's foreign minister heikal moscow is in washington for a nato meeting reports in the media say that he'll announce defense spending increases is that much to please donald trump was always complain bitterly that europeans are not paying enough well it's not to please donald trump it's because our all armed forces need more investment and no more support we are here for outdated. weaponry outdated equipment and so forth some years germany has increased its spending on defense and we will continue to do that but do you think jim lee will ever make the two percent of nato commitment by two thousand and twenty four. well that's not the important thing the important thing is to have. enough investment in all of our primary systems and in our army in general and as our tax increases rise we are going to have also rising investment in to our army but it's all about building up sufficient military capacities it's not about reaching. a numerical goal so be two percent be nine point eight percent fos the important thing

that meeting for us barbara welcome first we just want to listen to what germany's foreign minister heikal must have to say at those meetings . we're going to i know without the nuclear missile treaty there would be less security but we recognize that this treaty has been violated by the russian side and that during the last sixty days unsuccessful attempts have been made to clear up the accusations for more transparency and more information. in so far as this is a treaty between two signatories and that one is in violation of it the treaty is de facto suspended. baro head mosse they're basically saying look no treaty means less security how important is this treaty to germany and to europe's security oh all the foreign ministers here in bucharest have stressed when they talked about this today that this was when one of the main pillars of the european security architecture this was the end more or less of the cold war and that was is signed off relief in europe when that was over and there was a sense of hope you never thought now things would get better the high tension atmosphere of tho

later that day also discussed the gas pipeline project nordstrom to with his counterpart from germany heikal mass pipeline has been the target of american pressure with washington going so far as to threaten sanctions against german companies involved trial sure bridge again says the u.s. and europe are increasingly not seeing eye to eye. of course the pipeline project is one of those areas where european and united states interests divert you've got a situation where i think european leaders and i exclude the united kingdom from this because united kingdom of course is planning to leave the e.u. and very much sees itself in partnership with united states rather i think than with its european allies in these issues and so where you've got united states applying pressure on for example germany in respect of the pipeline project that comes along with a lot is consistent with a number of other areas. we spoke to russian direct investment fund c.e.o. . dmitri of who is attending the munich conference he told us. have backfired on the nations imposing them. we believes it's a coastal sanctions is

thirteen since then a third have returned home around two hundred led to do dat foreign minister heikal mass says it's difficult to track if prisoners are actually truman citizens or five you have if this were the case necessary to check to what extent they were involved in fighting pro yes which would result in criminal proceedings having to be opened against them. and these people can come to germany only if it is insurance that they can immediately be taken into custody as i'm good normally here. to prosecute our rehabilitate the question of how to deal with the returning i as fighters and their families is a major challenge for germany and for other european countries as well. let's bring. our brussels bureau chief max off when he's on the story for us tonight good evening to you max so we got this all to made him from the u.s. president has there been a response from the e.u. from the european union to this tweet the european union itself is not responsible for this frederica marina the high representative for foreign and security policy of the european union pointed that out again

i mean the have been some attempts if you look for instance the two german foreign minister heikal mass he did travel to moscow he did try to talk to sergey lavrov the russian foreign minister and but the reaction was sort of cool we know lover of i mean you've been in the business for decades and he has a particularly sort of. cold smile if he doesn't want to engage through something and somebody and so he. really got sort of the cold shoulder in russia he traveled to washington as we heard he talked to the american administration but he didn't really find any open ears there either so the attempts they are making more less bound to fail and they know this barbara vessel with the view from back in your foreign ministers meeting in bucharest thanks barbara. meantime here in germany nuclear disarmament has long been one of the top issues for many people back in the one nine hundred eighty s. nuclear missiles were stationed in the communist east by the soviet union and in allied occupied west germany by the united states it left many here fearful of nuclear war hundreds of thousands of we

similar positions and they are very actually very different positions the german foreign minister heikal mass has said that it would be extremely difficult to repatriate i asked fighters and as you mentioned their wives and children and in principle if someone has german citizenship then they are entitled to return to gemini but that at least in germany's case is very difficult at the moment they have seva ties with the syrian government they also don't recognize the syrian kurdish autonomous region as it would be difficult for them to check identities but of course then in the in the u.k.'s case for example they too have said that this would be a difficult. ask and the u.k. actually has already passed laws which would enable them to actually revoke the citizenship from naturalized citizen so that they wouldn't have to deal with them in a terror related trial ok so some various approaches in those three capitals all the political pressure on europe to deal with the jobless in syria the u. nationals are come as washings also threatening to hit the european auto industry with a new tariff

germany later this week starting tomorrow and in preparation for that the german foreign minister heikal marson his french counterpart published a piece in the newspaper here in germany today. defending their stance and pushing for a further multilateral order in the world and in that context said one of the big examples for successful multilateral deals is in fact this deal. tommy could deal with with iran so this morning in news papers here they defended their deal and in fact as we know the european union has set up a structure to help european companies circumvent american sanctions that's what mike pence was referring to there is an official structure in europe for european companies to do trade with iran and to help them to overcome or to circumvent american sanctions in other words there is a lot of political capital and possibly also commercial capital invested in all of this all right our political correspondent hans brandt covering this story for us good to talk to you. now iran has called of the middle east conference in warsaw a circus and says it is an attempt to demonize th

german foreign minister heikal mosque held talks with his russian counterpart sergey lavrov of. russia as current behavior was the only in this treaty hints at the negative impact this could have for the security of everyone involved and especially for us in europe. given the crisis surrounding the preservation of the i and if treaty we need greater dialogue between americans europeans and russians. high level u.s. representatives such as if i could trump are also attending before arriving in munich u.s. vice president mike pence visited the former concentration camp in poland on his flight to germany he accused iran of conducting itself with quote the same semitic hatred as the nazis. at germany's chancellor angela merkel is due to speak shortly and we'll be going live to munich for that she said she wants to speak about the role of europe in the world chief political correspondent melinda crane is standing by for us in munich melinda has a new arms race between russia and nato a trade war between china and the us the munich security conference has set itself the goal of trying

could mean europeans could once again live under the threat of such weapons german foreign minister heikal said quote there will be less security without the treaty while hungary's top diplomat says history has taught us that quote whenever there was a conflict between east and west we central europeans always last when i speak some more about this not to maxwell don one who is a nuclear policy analyst at the british american society information council is live from london very good to have you on the news great so the europeans on edge know this about the u.s. withdrawal from the i.m.f. how much more dangerous a situation looking at what impact on europe security i think we're entering a really dangerous situation potentially in europe in many ways a stuck between a hard place in iraq on the one hand wanting to stand up to our raechel to send to russia that is seen as increasingly aggressive but at the on the other hand being increasingly unhappy with the approach that it's. its american ally and the present supreme garmsir of its security is taking which is in danger endangering europe i