Global Order Under Threat, German President Urges UN Reform

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Monday that the international rules-based order is under unprecedented pressure and urged a renewed global commitment to cooperation and a stronger, reformed United Nations. Speaking at the opening of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, Steinmeier said the world is entering a period where long-standing international norms are increasingly threatened. “We are living in a time when the international rules that have guided us for decades are under threat, when some powerful states no longer adhere to these rules and brazenly violate them when they stand in the way of their power interests,” he said. “A spirit of brutality and cruelty is sweeping through international politics,” Steinmeier added. Despite these developments, he stressed that abandoning multilateral cooperation would be a mistake. “Withdrawal from the United Nations would be short-sighted and fatal. However, the UN must change, it must become more efficient and effective, prove that it can deliver better results than authoritarian leaders with their fantasies of omnipotence,” he said.