BERLIN (Reuters) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against creating a new Cold War by dividing the world into blocs and called for every effort to be made to build new partnerships, writing in an opinion piece for Foreign Affairs magazine published online on Monday.
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,” wrote Scholz in the piece.
“This means making every effort to build new partnerships, pragmatically and without ideological blinders,” he added.
Scholz singled out China and Russia in particular as two countries that pose a threat to a multipolar world, which requires stronger European and transatlantic unity to overcome.
The transatlantic partnership remains vital to confronting challenges posed by Russia’s threat of potential assaults on allied territory, while China’s turn toward isolation and its approach towards Taiwan require Europe and North America to form new and stronger partnerships with countries around the world, he wrote.
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that some departments of the German government were prescribing the “wrong medicine” by politicizing economic and trade issues.
It is hoped that the German side will continue to promote and deepen bilateral economic and trade cooperation “with an open mind”, the Chinese foreign ministry said in response to a Reuters request for comment on the strategy paper, adding that cooperation far outweighs competition.