Fifty years ago, on 18 September 1973, by New York’s East River, two German states joined the United Nations. Germany’s accession to the United Nations came 28 years after the organisation was founded. This task and our fifty years of United Nations membership are more important now than ever — at a time when fundamental principles of the United Nations are being eroded. It means putting the Sustainable Development Goals at the heart of the United Nations. With our accession fifty years ago, we Germans made a promise to take on responsibility for the United Nations.
