22.06.2017, Germany.
At the Henry A. Kissinger Award ceremony in Berlin on June 20, Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German Finance Minister, said that Europe must do more to defend the liberal world order, as the United States appears to be increasingly less willing to do so, Reuters reports. Henry A. Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, personally presented the award to the German minister.
“If the United States is starting to take a skeptical view of its role as the guardian of global order – and we’ve already seen hints of this in recent years – then I would see this as a call to action directed at Europe, including Germany,” Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
The German minister added that he doubted whether the United States truly believed the world order would be equally robust and strong if China and Russia were to fill the gaps it left, or if Beijing and Moscow were given a free hand to dominate their own spheres of influence.
“That would be the end of our liberal world order. This order is still the best of all possible worlds, for ethical, political and economic reasons. And we want this order to keep moving forward, or at least not see it weakened,” he said.
Since 2007, on behalf of the American Academy in Berlin, the Henry A. Kissinger Prize is awarded annually for exceptional contributions to trans-Atlantic relations.
Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, played a key role to promote detente as the US foreign policy to ease tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. Henry Kissinger noted that since 2001 America has gradually been losing Russia’s trust, which it ultimately lost with the conflict in Syria. However, according to Kissinger, there is still the possibility to improve relations between the US and Russia.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
