Latest news with #WestphalianPeaceConference
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, 103, awarded honorary prize
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer has received the inaugural honorary award of the International Prize of the Peace of Westphalia. The 103-year-old was awarded the prize in the western German city of Münster by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who praised her long contribution to humanity, tolerance, peace and democracy. Friedländer was born in Berlin in 1921 and was the sole survivor of her nuclear family during the Holocaust, having been transported to Theresienstadt in 1944. Her father died in a concentration camp, while her mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz. After more than 60 years in exile in New York, Friedländer returned to Berlin at the age of 88 and took German citizenship. "But your message is not a reckoning with this country ... a reckoning that you have every right to make," said Steinmeier, addressing Friedländer. Friedländer said she spoke "for all people who were murdered because other people did not respect them as human beings." Amid threats to peace, every individual has an obligation to stand up for peaceful coexistence, respect and democracy, she said. "Because what happened back then must never, ever happen again," said the 103-year-old. The ceremony took place at the second Westphalian Peace Conference, which drew several hundred participants to discuss the changing global order. The Peace of Westphalia relates to two peace treaties signed in 1648 which ended a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German president: Europe must develop deterrence amid 'epochal shift'
Europe must invest in its defence and develop credible deterrence amid a "double epochal shift" in the global order, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Friday. Speaking at the second Westphalian Peace Conference summit in the western German city of Münster, Steinmeier referred to the dual disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the new tariff policy outlined this week by US President Donald Trump. "We Europeans must now focus on what is important to us. And we must take greater care of our own protection," said the German president. The €326 billion ($359 billion) invested by European Union member states in defence every year is not enough considering a radically transformed threat level, Steinmeier argued. The 69-year-old welcomed a recent vote in the German parliament that amended constitutional rules on borrowing to allow a massive increase in spending on defence. Europe needs German armed forces that can credibly contribute to deterrence with state-of-the-art equipment and greater manpower, Steinmeier argued. While he said it was wrong to "prematurely declare the NATO defence alliance dead," he added that decisive steps towards a common European defence are necessary. Steinmeier also called for an active foreign policy to counter autocratic leaders. Europe should not "underestimate itself" or play a "marginal role at the children's table on the global stage," the president added. Reacting to Trump's tariff announcement, Steinmeier said the US leader had attacked "the rules and principles of our trans-Atlantic partnership and our Western community of values." The summit in Münster brought together several hundred participants to discuss key themes of global security, with this year's edition - two years after the first one in 2023 - focusing on the changing global order.
