German President Warns Rules-Based Global Order Under Threat

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (Wikimedia Commons/German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier)

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday warned that the rules-based international order was facing unprecedented pressure, urging a renewed global commitment to cooperation and stronger UN reform.

Speaking at the opening of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, President Steinmeier said the world was entering a period in which long-standing international norms were increasingly under threat.

"We live in an era when the international rules that have guided us for decades are under threat, when some powerful countries no longer recognize these rules and boldly violate them when these rules hinder their own power interests," he said, according to the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, launching Anadolu (30/6).

Further, President Steinmeier said global politics is increasingly shaped by "raw power politics, zero-sum thinking, and confrontation," replacing what he described as the foundations of a cooperative international system.

"The spirit of brutality and cruelty is sweeping through international politics," President Steinmeier said.

Despite these developments, President Steinmeier stressed that abandoning multilateral cooperation would be the wrong move.

"Withdrawal from the United Nations would be a short-sighted and fatal act. Nevertheless, the UN must change, must become more efficient and effective, must prove that it can deliver better results than authoritarian leaders with their fantasies of omnipotence," he said.