Ex-UNSC chief backs bid for permanent seat by India, ‘world’s third-most powerful country'

According to former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, the UK, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, should ‘step aside’ for India.

As the ‘third most-powerful country’ in the world, India should get its ‘rightful place’ as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), according to ex-Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, a former president of the top UN body.

An overall view as the UN Security Council holds a meeting on the situation in the Middle East at UN headquarters on June 10, 2024 in New York. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

The United Kingdom, one of the five permanent members, should ‘step aside’ for India, he said.

“There is absolutely no question that India is the third most-powerful country today after the United States and China. The Great Britain (UK) is no longer great,” Mahbubani told NDTV.

On why he thinks that the UK should relinquish its permanent membership, Mahbubani, who headed the UNSC between January 2001 and May 2002, stated that fearing ‘backlash,’ the UK has not used its veto power ‘for decades.’

“So, the logical things is to give up its seat to India,” Singapore's former Permanent Representative to the UN, added.

India, where the British rule ended in August 1947, is the fifth-largest economy in the world, having surpassed the latter in September 2022.

The US, UK, France, China, and Russia, hold the five permanent seats in the Security Council, where India has had eight terms as a non-permanent member, most recently in 2021-22.

There are fifteen members of the UNSC – five permanent (each with veto power) and 10 non-permanent (no veto power). The non-permanent seats are allotted on a rotational basis.

The G4 nations – Brazil, Germany, India, Japan – support each other's bids for a permanent membership.

Meanwhile, speaking on potential reforms in the United Nations, Mahbubani, the ex-UNSC chief, remarked that the founders of the world body ensured that ‘that all great powers of the time had vested interests in the organisation in order to make it work.’