P5+1

Categories: Trading

Basically, the cool kids table at the United Nations.

When the U.N. was created, its management structure included a Security Council at the top. There were five permanent members of the Security Council. These countries represented the major allies that won World War II: the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, and China.

The P5 part of the P5+1 comes from this group. "P" indicating that they were permanent council members. And just like a wedding that you don’t want to go to alone, the P5 has its plus one. That tagalong is Germany, who, for obvious reasons, was not invited to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

As a lesson in perspective and ethnocentrism, this group has a different name in Europe. Over there, they call it the E3 + 3. So...the three European countries (U.K., Germany, and France), plus three other countries that they obviously consider sidekicks (China, Russia, the U.S.). Something tells us that name change was Germany's suggestion.



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