French President Emmanuel Macron has supported India’s bid for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and advocated the expansion of the UN body. “We have a Security Council that we need to make more effective,” Macron told the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. We have to make it more representative.
He said, ‘Therefore, France is in favor of the expansion of the Security Council. Germany, Japan, India and Brazil should be permanent members, as well as two countries that Africa will decide to represent it.’
India has been at the forefront of efforts in the United Nations to urgently implement long-pending reforms in the Security Council and has been insisting that it should seek a permanent seat at the highest forum of the United Nations. Is entitled to. India argues that the 15-nation council, established in 1945, is not fit for 21st century purposes and does not reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.
Currently, the Security Council consists of five permanent members and 10 non-permanent member states, who are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for a two-year term. The five permanent members are Russia, Britain, China, France and America and these countries can veto any important resolution.
India last sat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations High Council in 2021-22. There is a growing demand to increase the number of permanent members to reflect the contemporary global reality.
In his address, Macron called for changes in the way the Security Council works, limiting the right to veto in cases of mass crimes and focusing more on operational decisions needed to maintain peace. “The time has come to gain efficiency to work better on the ground,” he said.
Macron’s comments come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the ‘Summit of the Future’ on Sunday, in which he stressed that reforms in institutions are necessary for global peace and development. He underlined that improvement is the key to relevance.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while addressing the summit, also warned the Security Council of 15 countries. He described the Security Council as an ‘outdated’ system and said that its powers were decreasing. He warned that if its structure and functioning were not improved, it would lose all its credibility.
‘We cannot build a future for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents,’ the UN chief made a clarion call.
