German Chancellor Harps On International Collaboration

Posted by Eric Ojo Europe, Latest Headlines Friday, June 3rd, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reiterated the need to deliberately adopt new forms of international collaboration in order achieve better results for the global community.

Scholz made the observation while addressing leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

He said too often, nations don’t look far enough for partners around the world, adding that governments should not only seek their political partners in the same countries.

“In this multipolar world, very different countries with growing influence are demanding a greater political participation. This is not a threat. We will open up new ways of cooperation”, he said.

He also noted that international cooperation provides answers and help support progress on the questions of the future, adding that there are new, emerging powers in Asia, Africa and Latin America that are taking advantage of the opportunities of globalization.

“For too long, governments have tended to equate ‘democracy’ with the ‘West’ in the classical sense” he added. For that reason, he invited South Africa, Senegal, India, Indonesia and Argentina to attend this year’s summit of the seven major industrialized nations (G7) in Elmau, Bavaria, in late June.

They represent countries and regions whose cooperation the world needs to move forward on global challenges in the future”, he further explained.

The German chancellor stressed that the new partnerships also meant showing solidarity in the face of looming hunger, commodity and inflation crises.

In a related development, the German Economy and Environment Minister Robert Habeck has called for shared solutions to multiple global crises.

The minister described energy supply, global warming and the ecological crisis as “great structural crises of our times” which he said must not be played off against each other.

Habeck told a meeting of the energy and environment ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations that it was obvious that greater speed was needed in overcoming these challenges.

One of the issues the two-day G7 meeting in Berlin addressed is how to take a leading role in advancing the phase-out of coal.

Germany is currently chairing the G7, with the other members France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the US and Britain.