Foreign policy minister Roderich Kiesewetter (CDU) sharply condemned the so‑called “Peace Council” proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. In an interview with the television channel Welt on Thursday, he warned that the U.N. is being undermined and discredited.
Kiesewetter said Trump’s initiative brings together states that have questionable domestic practices, especially regarding minorities and human rights. “When I think of Belarus or Azerbaijan, it becomes clear” he added. “We are also witnessing Trump eroding the rules‑based international order and shaping the world according to his own preferences. The whole arrangement looks grotesque: the leader of the Western world is no longer”.
He urged that Germany, the EU and other European states focus on their own security, economy and unity, referring to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Otherwise we risk being shredded” he warned.
Kiesewetter pointed out that the UN is partly paralyzed and that a weak U.N. was exactly what Trump sought. “The Security Council is stalled – that’s accurate” he said. Trump also invited Russia and Belarus to his “Peace Council” a move that Kiesewetter criticized because those countries heavily pressure Ukraine, deny its right to exist and seek to absorb it.
According to Kiesewetter, Trump has systematically weakened the U.N. over the years by cutting funding and withdrawing from dozens of international organisations that cooperate with it. He even “basically dismantled” the U.S. aid agency USAID, creating a competing entity that fuels mistrust of the U.N.
Now it is up to the EU and Germany to provide stability for smaller countries. “What should weaker states rely on? They need rules, not the law of the stronger” Kiesewetter said. “We must be a collective voice for states seeking predictability, rather than succumbing to Trump’s unpredictability”.
