Germany has vowed to preserve the “rule-based international order” of “open societies” and combat populism through the United Nations (UN) when it takes up a position at the Security Council.

“We will not stand by idly as nationalists and populists try to turn the clock back,” declared foreign minister Heiko Maas, speaking in the Bundestag on Thursday.

“It is not the law of the strong, but the strength of law that must and will remain the foundation of a peaceful world order in the future.”

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician warned “the world order familiar to us is undergoing a fundamental upheaval”, decrying the increasing levels of dissatisfaction seen over globalist trade deals and the globalised imposition of liberalism.

Speaking on its application for the 2019/2020 period on the most powerful UN body, Maas said has a “responsibility” to counter populist resistance against globalisation on the world stage, promising to use the position to promote the nation’s “values”.

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Germany and Belgium are both running unopposed for a pair of non-permanent positions at the Security Council — the only UN body endowed with the power to authorise the use of force, impose sanctions, and make legally binding decisions — and are expected to secure the two thirds majority from the UN’s members required at elections on June 8.

An avid proponent of the so-called “liberal democratic order”, following his appointment as foreign secretary earlier this year Maas described the global situation as one split between “those who promote openness and tolerance and those who wish to return to isolationism and nationalism”.

The driving force behind controversial anti-“hate” laws that have been introduced since 2015 — when more than a million third world migrants made their way to Germany — in his previous role as Justice Minister, Maas stated last year that “freedom of speech ends where the criminal law begins”.