Munich Conference: German President criticizes global powers

Atta Ur Rehman Khan

14th Feb, 2020. 09:20 pm
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President of Germany has suggested that Russia and China and the United States, were stoking global instability, as he warned of the danger that the three were slipping into a new “great power” game and nuclear arms competition.

According to the sources of Reuters, In opening remarks at the annual Munich Security Conference, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier deplored the three big powers’ approach to global affairs and, without naming Trump, took issue with his vow to “make America great again”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the comments on February 14 at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, a high-level diplomatic and political gathering held annually in the German city since 1963.

Nearly three dozen heads of state, diplomats, and others were scheduled to attend this year’s conference, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

“Russia…has made military force and the violent shifting of borders on the European continent the means of politics once again,” Steinmeier said in his opening remarks.

“China…accepts international law only selectively where it does not run counter to its own interests,” he said.

“And our closest ally, the United States of America, under the present administration itself, rejects the idea of an international community,” he said.

The upshot is “more mistrust, more armament, less security…all the way to a new nuclear arms race,” he said.

In response, he said, Germany should raise defense spending to contribute more to European security and to maintain its alliance with the United States, recognizing that U.S. interests were gravitating away from Europe toward Asia.