Want to see expansion of UNSC permanent seats to include India, Brazil, Germany, Japan: U.K.

The U.K. has called for the expansion of the UN Security Council’s permanent seats to include India, Brazil, Germany and Japan as well as African representation, underlining that it is high time the powerful UN body entered the 2020s.

The U.K. has called for the expansion of the UN Security Council's permanent seats to include India, Brazil, Germany and Japan as well as African representation, underlining that it is high time the powerful UN body entered the 2020s.

Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of July Ambassador Barbara Woodward's comments came as she briefed UN correspondents on the programme of work of the Security Council for the month.

On reform of the UN Security Council, “we want to see the expansion of the Council's permanent seats to include India, Brazil, Germany and Japan and African representation. It's high time the Council entered the 2020s,” Ms. Woodward told reporters here on July 3.

Ms. Woodward referred to remarks by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly last week in which he announced the U.K.’s ambition to drive forward reform of the multilateral system.

Ms. Woodward said the U.K.’s presidency of the Security Council in July marks the first step in that process.

Responding to a question on the reason behind U.K.’s support for permanent UNSC membership for India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, Ms. Woodward said: “Our thinking behind the four countries that we supported was partly to do with geographical balance.

"Introducing India and Brazil would bring a wider geographical representation into the Council, but also to bring in countries that have more influence than they had when the original Security Council was put together in 1945 for obvious reasons," she said.