GERMANY/FILE: Germany presses for reform of the United Nations Security Council saying it is outdated

Record ID: 722299

  • Title: GERMANY/FILE: Germany presses for reform of the United Nations Security Council saying it is outdated
  • Date: 6th January 2011
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JANUARY 5, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (German) FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN ANDREAS PESCHKE, SAYING: "In this year there is a particular constellation, that being, that three of the so-called G4 states are non-permanent members in the Security Council. The G4 - I want to say it again briefly - consists of Brazil, India, Japan and Germany. A group of states that all have a big interest in a reform of the Security Council. Three of them - all with the exception of Japan - are at the moment, non-permanent members on the Security Council and a new momentum could be forthcoming from this new constellation."
  • Embargoed: 21st January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAAH0KPSZETVA3OFIVEUA7I4TL4
  • Story Text: Germany hopes to join Brazil and India in pressing for reform of the U.N. Security Council while all three sit on the council in 2011, it said on Wednesday (January 5).
    Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said Germany believed the postwar era that produced a Security Council with five permanent veto-wielding members -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China -- was over, and that changes were needed.
    The so-called Group of Four (G4) nations -- Japan, Brazil, India and Germany -- have for years pressed for permanent seats on the council, and Peschke said that all barring Japan would occupy rotating seats this year.
    "New momentum (for reform) could be forthcoming from this constellation," he told a regular government news conference."Of course we hope to use the momentum because, in our view, it's high time we had a reform of the Security Council, quite simply because the Security Council does not reflect the world as it is today, but as it was at the end of World War Two."
    "In a world that is changing dramatically, the Security Council, as the highest custodian of peace and security in the world, obviously needs to be changed," he added.
    Germany, one of the top contributors to the United Nations, began its two-year term on the council on January 1.Despite support from permanent members for individual G4 nations to join the council, no collective agreement has been reached.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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