Germany has big plans for UN Security Council seat

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas' business trip to New York in June has borne fruit. He had long been making the case for Germany to have a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the United Nations' most important body.

The decision to award the Germans a seat on the Council alongside the five permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom — and nine other non-permanent members was a clear one: 184 votes out of a possible 193. Germany took up its place on January 1.

The agenda: A strong Europe

Germany has a lot of plans it wants to implement over the next two years. At the UN General Assembly in September, Foreign Minister Maas advocated strengthening multilateralism, which has come under pressure from, among other things, the "America First" policies of US President Donald Trump.

"The United Nations is at the heart of the multilateral system," said Maas before departing for New York earlier this year. "We are living at a time when we need more international order, more reliability, more confidence in our common rules. The United Nations is as strong, just and effective as its members make it."

Germany also intends to advocate for a strong UN and a strong role for Europe in its various bodies. Over the next two years, Germany's main concern will be to try and ensure that the European Union as a whole is given a permanent seat. After Brexit, the only EU country represented on the Council will be France.

Opposing medium-range missiles

Crisis prevention is also on the agenda. The German presence on the Security Council will aim to ensure that the body gets involved earlier than it has done up to now in crisis regions....