Steinmeier: the world must not turn into a robbers’ den
Federal President Steinmeier warns of the direction the world order has recently been headed, and urges that we must not stand by and watch.
Berlin (dpa) – Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged that we must not stand by and watch as the world order that had been established after World War II was increasingly disintegrating. The loss of respect for international law and erosion of the international order had already reached an advanced stage, he said at a symposium in Berlin that was held by the Körber Foundation to mark Mr Steinmeier’s 70th birthday.
It had to be prevented “that the world turns into a robbers’ den where those who are the most ruthless will take whatever they want” and “small and weaker states are completely defenceless,” he said, pointing out that a rearrangement of security policy was a necessary consequence. “We must not be weak,” Mr Steinmeier stressed. He continued by saying that Germany could only play a role “if we are taken seriously also militarily” and that this was “the goal we have to achieve”.
President Steinmeier did not explicitly mention the USA’s most recent military action in Venezuela or US President Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions concerning Greenland. He did, however, speak of a “double epochal break”. This was caused on the one hand by Russia attacking Ukraine, thus destroying the European security architecture, he said, adding that “however, there is also the breach of values of the US as our most important partner”.
