Germany wants permanent Security Council seat
BERLIN Berlin has confirmed that it will work towards obtaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council if, as seems likely, an EU seat cannot be created. This is the substance of a coalition agreement concluded for the newly re-elected government between the Social Democrat Party of Germany and the Greens.
The coalition agreement also reaffirms its commitment to the transatlantic relationship. The document, indeed, is full of bromides about common interests and values with America, and references to Germany's commitment to ,,building civil society"around the world. Germany would not, the document promised, refuse its international obligations and it would pull its weight in the Atlantic alliance. It insists that the fight against terrorism must be primarily political and says that the use of the Germany army will be limited to civil and political crisis prevention (a limitation which was not observed during the Kosovo war). Germany reaffirmed her ,,commitment"to the Balkans, but the document abounds with references to the fact that future military adventures abroad must be done within the framework of the UN (again, not something which the Germans seemed to mind during the attacks on Yugoslavia, which were undertaken with no UN involvement whatever). This is understood as a tacit repetition of the German refusal to countenance an American attack on Iraq, especially if it is carried out without UN approval.
Source:
European Foundation Intelligence Digest Issue No. 152