Complex Global Problems Need Multilateral Solutions Based On Int'l Law - German Lawmaker

Modern global challenges require a multilateral approach based on strong international agreements because bilateral negotiations are losing their relevancy in an increasingly complex world, German lawmaker Ralf Stegner said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) Modern global challenges require a multilateral approach based on strong international agreements because bilateral negotiations are losing their relevancy in an increasingly complex world, German lawmaker Ralf Stegner said on Thursday.

Stegner, who co-chairs Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party and leads the party's regional office in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, met with the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian parliament's upper house, Konstantin Kosachev.

"It is always easier to conduct a dialogue in a bilateral format, but given the complexity of the current situation in Europe, in the world, just bilateral negotiations can not always give the desired effect because the tasks are more complex .

.. Therefore, in this sense, the strengthening of the role of the UN and the strengthening of the role of international law, I think that these are the aspects on which we need to direct more efforts," the lawmaker said.

Stegner said he believed that the international community had fallen into the habit of looking to the United States and NATO for its foreign policy decisions. However, the German lawmaker said he considered this method to be a "policy of yesterday" and that the global community should rely more on international agreements to formulate foreign policy.

Specifically, issues such as climate change, the refugee crisis and other cross-border challenges need to be addressed through multilateral negotiations, the lawmaker said.