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Dispatches

) Jörg Luyken (Berlin), “Scholz’s SPD to honour ‘friend of Putin’ Gerhard Schröder; Mr Schröder, 79, will be celebrated at closed-door event despite party peers wanting him booted out over ties to Russia,”September 13, 2023 (5:22pm);

2) Laura Hūlsemann, “Germany’s Social Democrats throw party for Putin’s pal Gerhard Schröder; Russia-linked former chancellor to be honored at private gathering,” POLITICO, September 13, 2023 (3:20 pm CET):

3) Dominic Nicholls and Jamie Johnson, “Joe Biden will urge UN to expand Security Council; US president wants to add countries including Germany and Japan to dilute influence of China and Russia,” The Telegraph, September 17, 2023 (5:33 pm);

Analysis

Luyken and Hūlsemann report that the Hannover District of tgecSocial Democratic Oarty (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to honor Putin friEnd and apologist former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for his 60 years of service to the SDP.

Schroer recently survived attempts to expel him from the party for his ties to Putin.

the celebration reveals, nonetheless, the continuing influence of “friends of Putin” in the SPD, which helps explain why Chancellor Olaf Scholz has continually dragged his feet in supplying Ukraine with the modern weapons systems it needs.

Currently, he is dragging his feet on supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is reported to be planning to propose an expansion of the number of Permanent Members of the U.N. Security Council.

This is a hare-brained idea, designed to gain points with the aspiring permament members but with absolutely zero chance of being carried out.

Biden either doesn’t get or simply doesn’t heed advice from international lawyers at the State Department and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

The U.N. Charter establishes the number of Permanent Members of the Security Council. It cannot be smended without the agreement of the five Permament Members, including Russia and China.

Biden would have done well to read the text of the U.N. Charter before coming up with this cynical, hare-brained scheme.

The United Nations Charter provides:

Chapter V: The Security Council

COMPOSITION

Article 23

1, he Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution.

2. The non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of two years….

3. Each member of the Security Council shall have one representative.

VOTING

Article 27

1. Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote.

2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members.

3. Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52, a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.

Chapter XVIII: Amendments

Article 108

Amendments to the present Charter shall come into force for all Members of the United Nations when they have been adopted by a vote of two thirds of the members of the General Assembly and ratified in accordance with their respective constitutional processes by two thirds of the Members of the United Nations, including all the permanent members of the Security Council.

Ignorance of international law is rampant in the Biden Administration,

This hare-brained proposal is only the latest example.

The Trenchant Observer

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