(MENAFN) German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that the West is losing its global influence as authoritarian regimes challenge liberal democratic values.

Speaking at an event marking the 35th anniversary of German reunification on Friday, Merz said the “appeal of what we call the free West is visibly declining.”

“It is no longer self-evident that the world will look to us, that our values of liberal democracy will be emulated,” he stated. He added that “new alliances of autocracies are forming against us and attacking liberal democracy as a way of life,” while internal threats also challenge the status quo.

Echoing Merz’s concerns, US Vice President J.D. Vance said in May that the era of “uncontested US dominance is over,” citing rising threats from “China, Russia, and other nations determined to beat us in every single domain – from spectrum to lower Earth orbit to our supply chains and even our communication infrastructure.”

Vance also criticized past US reliance on soft power and foreign interventions, claiming Washington had often focused on issues “very little to do with core American interests.” He pledged a break from such strategies under President Donald Trump’s administration.

In a related statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday that the world is undergoing “rapid and drastic changes.”

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