Germany’s Scholz: We must avoid dividing the world into Cold War-style blocs

GERMAN Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against the creation of a new Cold War by dividing the world into blocs, and emphasised the importance of building new partnerships in an opinion piece published on Monday (Dec 5).

The West must stand up for democratic values and protect open societies, “but we must also avoid the temptation to once again divide the world into blocs”, he said in the online piece for Foreign Affairs magazine.

He added: “This means making every effort to build new partnerships, pragmatically and without ideological blinders.”

He singled out China and Russia as two countries that pose threats to a multipolar world, which would require stronger European and trans-Atlantic unity to overcome.

The trans-Atlantic partnership remains vital to confronting challenges posed by Russia’s threat of potential assaults on allied territory, he said. At the same time, Europe and North America must form new and stronger partnerships with countries around the world in response to China’s turn towards isolation, and its approach towards Taiwan.

“Germans are intent on becoming the guarantor of European security that our allies expect us to be, a bridge-builder within the European Union and an advocate for multilateral solutions to global problems,” he wrote. REUTERS