Berlin
\nGermany\u2019s foreign minister says support for Ukraine and Israel may have cost votes after Berlin failed to secure a rotating spot on the UN Security Council.
\nJohann Wadephul described losing out to Portugal and Austria as a \u201cbitter defeat\u201d after a vote on which countries would become one of the five new members of the council was held on Wednesday evening.
\n\u201cThere is our firm support for Ukraine, the fact that Russia does not want such a voice at the Security Council,\u201d Wadephul said, adding it was \u201cno secret\u201d Russia had stirred up sentiment against Germany.
\nThere are five permanent members of the UN Security Council \u2013 China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US \u2013 and 10 temporary ones.
\n\u201cWe have always taken a clear stance on certain issues, and these are positions that not all member states share,\u201d Wadephul said.
\n\u201cThe fact that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel in the Middle East conflict may also have cost votes,\u201d he said.
\nWadephul also in part blamed his country\u2019s late entry into the race for the two-year term on the Security Council.
\nRussia has not responded to accusations it lobbied against Germany\u2019s membership.
\nGermany secured 104 votes in its push for one of the two places on the council for the Western European and \u200bOthers Group, with Portugal getting 134 votes in its favour \u200band Austria 131.
\nKyrgyzstan, Trinidad \u200band Tobago and Zimbabwe were also elected to the Security Council, which is the only UN body that can make legally binding decisions \u200bsuch as imposing sanctions and authorising use of force.
\nMissing out on the spot is a blow for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
\nHe has been beleaguered at home and now embarrassed abroad, his critics in opposition parties say, given he has advertised himself as a man who would boost Germany\u2019s standing on the international stage.
\nMerz said Germany would continue to be a firm supporter of the international system and congratulated Austria and Portugal.
\n\u201cThis result does not alter the tasks we face at the United Nations. Germany remains a reliable pillar of the multilateral system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Berlin Germany\u2019s foreign minister says support for Ukraine and Israel may have cost votes after Berlin failed to secure a rotating spot on the UN Security Council. Johann Wadephul described losing out to Portugal and Austria as a \u201cbitter defeat\u201d after a vote on which countries would become one of the five new members of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98643,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98629\/revisions\/98643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}