India's Exclusion From UN Security Council Is "Absurd", Says Elon Musk
Elon Musk recently asked for a revision of the United Nations bodies and called absence of India as its permanent member of the body as “absurd”. He also added that South Africa collectively should also have a permanent membership in the United Nations. Taking to his X (formerly twitter), the American entrepreneur said that, “at some point, there needs to be a revision of the UN bodies”. He said the problem lies in the refusal of “those with excess power” to give it up.
He said, “India not having a permanent seat on the Security Council, despite being the most populous country on Earth, is absurd. Africa collectively should also have a permanent seat imo”.
Elon Musk tweeted by sharing United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ post on his X page in which he posed the question of how is acceptable that “Africa still lacks a single Permanent Member in the Security Council?”. He said the institution should reflect on today’s world rather what is has been 80 years ago.
At some point, there needs to be a revision of the UN bodies.
Problem is that those with excess power don’t want to give it up.
India not having a permanent seat on the Security Council, despite being the most populous country on Earth, is absurd.
Africa collectively should…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2024
India has been a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for eight terms, which is for 16 years. India is member of G4, a group of nations that back each other for seeking permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. The countries, Brazil, Germany, India, and Nepal, advocate for a reform in the UN Security Council.
Earlier, India’s External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar emphasised the growing global support of India’s permanent membership in UNSC, and said that, “with each passing year, the feeling in the world is that India should be there, and I can feel that support…the world does not give things easily and generously; sometimes you have to take them”.
In September 2023, the External Affairs Minister said that, UN’s reluctance to reform its structure may render the organization as “anachronistic”, which would prompt people to seek solutions from elsewhere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier noted that during the time when UN was first established, it only had 51 founding members, though today the number of the countries raised to 200. “The permanent members in UNSC are still the same”, added PM Modi.
