French President Emmanuel Macron at the United Nations on September 25, 2024
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron has supported India’s bid for permanent membership in a reformed United Nations Security Council, while advocating the expansion of the powerful U.N. body.

“We have a Security Council that is blocked… Let’s make the U.N. more efficient. We have to make it more representative,” Mr. Macron said at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

“That’s why,” he said, “France is in favour of the Security Council being expanded. 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 at the U.N. to push for urgent long-pending reform of the Security Council, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member. India argues that the 15-nation council founded in 1945 is not fit for purpose in the 21st century and does not reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.

At present, the UNSC comprises five permanent members and 10 non-permanent member countries which are elected for a two-year term by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The five permanent members are Russia, the U.K., China, France and the United States and these countries can veto any substantive resolution.

India last sat at the U.N. high table as a non-permanent member in 2021-22. There has been a growing demand to increase the number of permanent members to reflect the contemporary global reality.

In his address, Mr. Macron also called for a change in the UNSC’s working methods, a limitation of the right of veto in cases of mass crimes, and more attention to operational decisions required for maintaining peace.

“The time has come to regain efficiency in order to act better on the ground,” he said.

Mr. Macron’s remarks came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the ‘Summit of the Future’ on Sunday emphasised that for global peace and development, reforms in institutions are essential, underlining that reform is the key to relevance.

Addressing the Summit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned the 15-nation UNSC, which he described as “outdated” and whose authority is eroding, will eventually lose all credibility unless its composition and working methods are reformed.

The U.N. chief gave a clarion call: “We can’t build a future for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents.”