India must get permanent UNSC seat, says France

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

“We have a Security Council that is blocked...Let’s make the UN more efficient. We have to make it more representative,” 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 UN to push for urgent long-pending reforms in the Security Council, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member.

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 UK, China, France and the US. These countries can veto any substantive resolution.