India’s Bid for Permanent UN Security Council Seat Gains Fresh Support in Congress

Washington–India’s campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council received renewed support in Congress as lawmakers argued that the body’s current power structure no longer reflects modern geopolitical realities.

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday on reforming the United Nations, Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., said any meaningful overhaul should address the Security Council’s composition and specifically cited India as a candidate for permanent membership.

“If we were designing a United Nations that was reflective of today’s world, we would design it very differently,” Bera said, noting that the council’s permanent membership continues to reflect “what the world looked like in 1945.”

He pointed to proposals to add the G4 countries of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan.

The comments came during a hearing titled “United Nations Accountability and Reform: Advancing an America First Foreign Policy Through Strategic Diplomacy and Burden Sharing.” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and Ambassador for U.N. Management and Reform Jeffrey Bartos defended the Trump administration’s efforts to restructure the organization.

Responding to Bera, Waltz acknowledged that the Security Council no longer fully represents the current global order but said reform would be politically difficult.

“I do worry about the P5 not reflecting today’s world,” Waltz said, referring to the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

“There has been proposals to have more elected members. There have been proposals to give some permanent but not have a veto. It’s really kind of all over the map in terms of Security Council reform,” he said.

Waltz said discussions about changing the council were separate from the U.N. secretary-general’s UN80 reform initiative. He added that there was “very little consensus” among major powers on how permanent membership should be expanded.

He argued that more immediate progress could be made through reforms to the General Assembly, where decades of mandates have accumulated without adequate review.

“We could make the most gains … by what happens in the General Assembly,” Waltz said, contending that overlapping mandates had contributed to rising costs and bureaucracy.

Bartos highlighted recent changes to U.N. budgeting procedures and said the United States had worked with other member states to overhaul the organization’s credit system after years of unsuccessful attempts.

“With U.S. leadership reformed the credit system,” Bartos said, presenting the move as evidence that consensus-based negotiations could still produce institutional changes.

The hearing focused largely on the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce U.N. spending, streamline peacekeeping operations and return the organization to what officials described as its core mission of maintaining international peace and security.

India has long sought permanent membership on an expanded Security Council, arguing that the current structure does not reflect shifts in global population, economic influence and political power.

New Delhi has cited its status as the world’s most populous country, a major economy, a large democracy and a significant contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations in support of its bid.

India, Brazil, Germany and Japan make up the G4, which advocates expanding both the permanent and nonpermanent categories of Security Council membership.

Although India’s campaign has received support from many U.N. member states, negotiations have remained stalled because of opposition from some countries and a lack of agreement among the existing permanent members over the structure of any expansion. (Source: IANS)