UN General Assembly
1946

We are still of the view, however, that the meaning of the Charter is that the initiative in regard to the admission of new Members lies with the General Assembly and that the appropriate procedure would be for applications to be transmitted first to the General Assembly, which would decide whether or not the applications were admissible. Those applications which were admissible would be referred to the Security Council for report, in accordance with Article 4 of the Charter, on the ability of the applicant to carry out its obligations in respect of those functions of the Organization which are the primary responsibility of the Security Council. If a favourable recommendation were received from the Security Council, the General Assembly would decide whether or not to admit the applicant State. Such a procedure would be strictly constitutional and would also reduce the political complexities with which applications may sometimes be surrounded.