The situation on the planet makes one think about a threat of a world war, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said.
“The danger of a new world war exists, we felt it even before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and it seems to me the coronavirus pandemic did not make any significant changes to the foreign policy situation,” the metropolitan said on the program Church and the World on Rossiya-24 television, commenting on the opinion British Chief of the Defense Staff Nick Carter, who said the pandemic and the economic crisis accompanying it, like many past crises, may lead to a world war.
The metropolitan said polarization between several centers of power and influence is observed in foreign policies. “And this polarization is potentially dangerous because the world we live in is a gun-powder barrel, and one fuse is enough to blow up this gun-powder barrel, and such arsenal of weapons, including nuclear weapons, has been accumulated that even a small part of it is enough to destroy life on earth,” the Russian Orthodox Church hierarch said.
In this situation, huge responsibility rests with the leaders of the superpowers, which have nuclear weapons, he said. The metropolitan said he is convinced that, despite the current differences between them, it is necessary to reach agreements and have dialogue “not using the language of sanctions, not using the language of threats and blackmail.” “It is necessary to learn to respect different approaches, but also remember that we live in one world, that we only have one earth and we are all responsible for keeping peace on earth,” he said.