UK Backs India's Permanent Membership In UN Security Council (image @narendramodi)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed India’s bid for a permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Addressing the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Starmer said the UNSC has to change to become a “more representative body.” The push came days after US President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron made a similar move.

Currently, the UNSC comprises five permanent members, including Russia, the UK, China, France, and the United States. The UNSC also include ten non-permanent member countries which are elected for a two-year term by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The permanent members hold the power to veto any substantive resolution.

“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 added.

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Earlier, Macron had also voiced strong support for India’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC.

“As long as we have a Security Council that is blocked, I would say, reciprocally according to the interests of each party, we will have difficulty moving forward. So let’s just make these United Nations more effective, first by perhaps making them more representative. That is why France, and I repeat here, is in favor of the Security Council being expanded,” he told the UN General Assembly.

“Germany, Japan, India, and Brazil should be permanent members, as well as two countries that Africa will decide to represent it,” Macron added.

Biden also vouched for India to be a permanent member of the UNSC last week.

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During his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said that the US supports initiatives to reform global institutions to reflect India’s important voice, including permanent membership for the country in a reformed UN Security Council.

India has been arguing for decades that it deserves to be a member of the UNSC. New Delhi has said that the 15-nation council founded in 1945 is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century and does not reflect contemporary geo-political realities. The last time India sat on the UN high table as a non-permanent member was in 2021-22.