The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, broke into tears while addressing the participants during the closing ceremony.

Axar.az reports that the Munich Security Conference's YouTube channel shared footage of the moment.

"With (convenor of the MCU) Ewald von Kleist this conference started as a trans-Atlantic conference after the speech of Vice President Vance on Friday we have to fear that our common value base is not that common anymore," said Mr Heusgen.

He thanked all participants of the event and, as he concluded his speech, was unable to hold back his emotions and started crying.

Heusgen took over the leadership of the security conference in 2022, after having been, among other things, Germany's UN ambassador and security and foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. The war in Ukraine broke out shortly after his first conference in February 2022.

He is now succeeded by Jens Stoltenberg, former Secretary-General of NATO.

Mr Vance's speech where he criticised Europe for an alleged suppression of free speech and a lack of democracy received pushbacks from various European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.