German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke about the need for international cooperation to tackle the Amazon wildfires saying that the Mercosur agreement "opens up opportunities to exert influence on Brazil" during the 17th Conference of Ambassadors in Berlin, on Monday.

Referring to US-China trade war, Mass said the logic of "My country first at its best" is harmful in the long run. He went on saying that "1 percent less growth in China within the next ten years results in €2 trillion damage for the rest of the world. Short-term cheerful news cannot hide that fact."

Mass also touched upon efforts to reform the WTO, saying that "due to the fundamental opposition of the US - and you cannot describe it differently - it has become more and more difficult. Without a swift solution, the WTO would not be able to, from December, enact one of its core functions - arbitration. This cannot be in anybody’s interest."

This year's conference, titled 'Shaping multilateralism,' runs between August 26 and 29. More than 200 German diplomatic missions, representatives of foreign embassies and numerous high-ranking representatives of politics, business and culture will be present at the conference.