Indonesia’s senior diplomat has emphasized the need for multilateral reform on the global stage, highlighting the multilateral system’s erosion because of a growing lack of interest among countries in cooperating to maintain peace and stability.

Second Deputy Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir made the statement at the two-day G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) in Johannesburg, South Africa late last week.

“Multilateralism keeps eroding while countries that built this system become increasingly reluctant to maintain it,” Arrmanatha said in a press release distributed by the Foreign Ministry on Saturday. “If this trend continues, the global system is at risk of failing.”

The deputy minister warned that the world has seen an intergovernmental organization like the League of Nations, established to maintain peace after World War I, fall apart because of weak enforcement of international law, inability to prevent aggression by major countries and a lack of commitment by countries to uphold the cooperation.

Arrmanatha said international law must also be enforced consistently without being selective.

“If international law is only used when it benefits certain parties, then its credibility will be further weakened,” he said.

Arrmanatha told the G20 meeting that the group must play a more active role in encouraging the reform of the global system.

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