Media: US wants to add up to six new members to the UN Security Council

The administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing an initiative to “overhaul” the UN Security Council (SC) aimed at restoring global confidence in it. The proposal includes the addition of up to six new permanent UNSC members without veto power, writes The Washington Post.

The move, the newspaper notes, reflects the White House’s desire to recognize the growing role of developing countries, as well as to alleviate widespread dissatisfaction with current council members and their “inability to stop global conflicts.”

Currently, the representative of the US President to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, according to WP, is consulting with diplomats of UN member states on this proposal.

As the publication recalls, Brazil and India, the leading developing countries, have long sought changes in the functioning of the Security Council, which, in their opinion, does not represent the interests of the global South – Africa, Asia and Latin America. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about the same in April, speaking at the UN headquarters in New York. According to him, the West is overrepresented in the UN Security Council”, which “undermines the principle of multilateralism”.

Now the UN Security Council consists of 15 members. These are five permanent members with veto power (China, Russia, UK, USA and France), as well as ten non-permanent members elected for a two-year term. These now include Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, UAE, Switzerland, Ecuador and Japan. Of the 193 UN member states, over 50 have never been members of the Security Council.

Biden back in September last year announced his support for the idea of ​​expanding the composition of the Security Council. “The time has come for the UN to become a more inclusive organization that will respond more effectively to the needs of the modern world,” he said at the time.

How noted experts interviewed by Vedomosti, this is far from the first proposal to change the composition of the UN Security Council. Amendments to the UN charter require their ratification by two-thirds of all members of the organization. Therefore, until now, apart from technical changes such as changing the names of countries, the UN Charter has not changed.