India’s UNSC permanent seat bid gets more endorsements

United Nations: While most of the leaders speaking at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting have called for reforming the Security Council, three countries, specifically, said that India should get a permanent seat.

The Council, struggling to tackle major security and peace issues, highlights the need for a comprehensive reform, Micronesia’s President Wesley Simina said on Thursday.

“It is time for permanent membership of the Security Council to be expanded to include Japan, India, Germany, Brazil, and representation from the African continent,” he said.

Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro expressed support for two countries with which Lisbon has historical ties, India and Brazil, getting permanent seats.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer voiced strong support for India’s inclusion as a permanent member of a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC), along with permanent African representation, Brazil, Japan and Germany and more seats for elected members as well.

“If we want the system to deliver for the poorest and most vulnerable then their voices must be heard. We need to make the system more representative and more responsive to those who need it most. So we will make the case not just for fairer outcomes, but fairer representation in how we reach them. And this also applies to the Security Council. It has to change to become a more representative body, willing to act — not paralysed by politics. We want to see permanent African representation on the Council, Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members, and more seats for elected members as well,” Starmer said while addressing the general debate at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

In earlier sessions this week, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric Font and France’s President Emmanuel Macron backed India’s quest for a permanent seat on the Council.

Two other permanent members of the Council, the US, and Russia, are also backing India.

IANS