France and the United Kingdom, the two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have reiterated their support for a permanent seat for India at the powerful horse-shoe table.
“France supports the candidacy of Germany, Brazil, India and Japan as permanent members. It also wishes to see a stronger presence of African countries, among both permanent and non-permanent members,” said Nicolas De Riviere, the French Ambassador at the UN.
Nicolas De Riviere was speaking at the UN Security Council open debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism chaired by External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar.
UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said, as the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly “publicly reiterated this week, we support new permanent seats for Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, and permanent African representation”.
Stressing that the world today is very different to the one that gave birth to the UN in 1945, Woodward said, “It is right that we consider how the UN and the multilateral system should evolve. The Security Council must, as others have said, become more representative of the world today and the UK has long called for its expansion, in both the permanent and non-permanent categories.”
Jaishankar presided over two signature events on counter-terrorism and reformed multilateralism being held under India’s current Presidency of the UN Security Council. On December 31, 2022, India’s two-year tenure as elected member of the powerful 15-nation group will also come to an end.
