German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against starting a new Cold War by dividing the world into blocs and called for every effort to create a new partnership.

In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, he wrote that the West must uphold democratic values and defend open societies, but we must also avoid the temptation to divide the world into blocs again.

"That means making every effort to build new partnerships pragmatically and without ideological shorts," he added.

Scholz singled out China and Russia in particular as two countries "posing a threat to a multipolar world that requires stronger European and transatlantic unity to overcome."

The transatlantic partnership, he said, remains vital to meet the challenges posed by the threat of "a potential Russian attack on allied territory, while China's turn toward isolation and its approach to Taiwan require Europe and North America to form new and closer partnerships with countries around the world."

"Germans intend to be the guarantor of European security as our allies expect us to be, a bridge builder in the European Union and a supporter of multilateral solutions to global problems," Scholz wrote.