New York (dpa) – To mark the 50th anniversary of Germany’s UN membership, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made an emphatic appeal for international cooperation. At an anniversary reception at the United Nations building on New York’s East River, Scholz said that new rifts are opening up in the world and that imperialism is “once again showing its ugly face”. However, he said that the lesson learnt from half a century of German UN membership is: “Even deep rifts can be overcome if we work together with courage, with creativity and with unwavering commitment to the principles of our United Nations.”
The Federal Republic of Germany and the then German Democratic Republic became members of the global organisation simultaneously, exactly 50 years ago. In his commemorative speech, Scholz recalled that an end to the Cold War and a reunified Germany were at the time but a distant utopian vision. They only became a reality, he went on, because courageous people in East Germany and all over Eastern Europe tore down the Iron Curtain and leading politicians and citizens across the world overcame the deepest rifts.
Against the backdrop of the anniversary, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged for reforms of the UN. “The United Nations represents the world of the last century, not the world of this century,” the minister said. That’s why it requires updating, she explained. In her view, this is also necessary because Asia, Africa and Latin America are not represented in the United Nations in a way that is commensurate with the international role they play today.
We cannot wait for reforms, however – rather the UN is reliant “on us standing up every day for its rules,” Baerbock said. She said that in the week of the UN General Assembly this was “especially important because the major global challenges and crises, such as the climate crisis, the state of healthcare and food security worldwide, do not take any break in the light of Russia’s brutal war of aggression”.
Discussion about this post