UNSC does not reflect today’s reality: US
WASHINGTON: Backing India’s stand that the United Nations Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, a top US diplomat has said that the Biden administration supports G-4 members becoming permanent members of the UN’s top organ.
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a speech in Tokyo, where she is travelling, indicated that Russia and China are the only two countries in the Security Council who are opposed to the expansion of the 15-member powerful wing of the United Nations.
“Previously the United States, China and Russia agreed on one thing, and that was that we did not want to see changes in the Security Council. But in 2021, the US pulled out of that, and we’ve made clear that it is important that we see reform in the Security Council and broadly in the UN,” she said.
“The Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, where we have 193 (Member States), where Africa does not have a permanent seat, Latin America does not have a permanent seat, and other countries around the world and other regions are not represented in a significant way in the Council,” she said. “So one, we have made clear in our discussions with some of the members of the so-called G4 - Japan, Germany, and India (and Brazil) we support their becoming permanent members of the Security Council,” she said.
“And the (US) President reinforced this in his speech last year, again reaffirming our support for permanent seats for Africa and Latin America and additional elected seats on the Council,” Thomas-Greenfield said. India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member at the UN high table, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century.
The UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.