US dismantling world order it helped build – German President

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the United States is actively dismantling the post-World War II international order it once helped build.

Steinmeier said on Wednesday evening that recent US actions amounted to a profound breach, comparable to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he called a historic rupture.

The German leader did not specify any particular US action, but his remarks followed global shock over the recent US military operations in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

“Then there is the breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order,” Steinmeier said.

He urged global action to prevent the world from descending into a “den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers”.

Steinmeier called for active intervention in threatening situations and appealed to rising powers to join in defending the rules-based system.

Steinmeier is the first European leader to publicly criticise the recent US actions, an unusually direct stance given that Europe remains one of Washington’s closest allies.

On Thursday, a poll indicated 76 percent of Germans surveyed now felt the US was not a partner that Germany could rely on.

It is the highest level of distrust recorded in the country in recent times.