Germany worried at signs of fraying multilateral order

[BERLIN] Germany is looking with concern at signs that the network of multilateral organizations and agreements designed to foster international cooperation is being weakened, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Berlin conference on Monday.

Ahead of a G20 summit of the world's leading economies, she said that multilateral organizations, United Nations agencies in particular, were short of the money they needed to play an effective role and that countries bearing the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis had received less aid than promised.

"International agreements and institutions are being weakened," she said. "This is worrying, since our multilateral global order comes from the lessons we learned from the terrible world wars of the last century."

REUTERS