Withdrawing from the world is not an option: German president

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has stressed the need for Germany and its European partners to take more responsibility on the global stage in the wake of the failed Western mission in Afghanistan, addressing the UN General Assembly on Friday.

"Withdrawing from the world" is not an option, Steinmeier said according to a manuscript circulated in advance, reported dpa.

However, responsibility didn't mean military concerns alone, the president stressed: "Military strength without the will for understanding, without the courage for diplomacy, will not make the world more peaceful. We need negotiating power as well as defence power."

Steinmeier’s speech to the 76th UN General Debate, which is currently taking place in New York, is the first since former president Karl Carstens spoke there in 1983. It usually falls to the government to represent Germany at the event, but Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stayed at home this year in the light of federal elections on Sunday.

Steinmeier spoke at length about the fallout from the takeover of the militant Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan, calling the fall of Kabul a "watershed" in international politics.

Germany shares responsibility for the failure to establish a self-sustaining political order in Afghanistan, the president said.

But instead of resignation, "this moment of geopolitical disillusionment" should mean three things for German foreign policy: "We have to become more honest, smarter, but also stronger.”