Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Left) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Right) [ANI File Photo]

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated recently that President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to convene a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), is still on the table and valid, Russia’s state-affiliated news agency TASS reported. Moscow “hopes” this initiative shall be implemented as Lavrov on Friday lashed out at the West, saying that it must “regains its senses.” 

“Back before the pandemic, [Russian] President Putin proposed holding a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council so that an honest discussion be held on how to run things globally for the world to be equal and just, with UN Charter provisions put to life,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a conference in Belarus while meeting Belarusian State University students and teaching staff. “The invitation, the proposal, is still on the table,” Lavrov added. “I hope we will be able to return to it as soon as the West regains its senses,” he remarked, according to TASS.

Lavrov pushes to add India as permanent member of UNSC

Lavrov also suggested that the UN Security Council needed an expansion, adding that such a prospect has been “underway for several decades now.”

It is pertinent to mention here that India has been elected eight times and has been seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. It has also presented a joint statement at the UN with Brazil, Germany and Japan urging for similar reforms as the veto powers of the permanent members have been “undermining the legitimacy” of the UN’s highest decision-making body. “Due to the use of the veto, the Security Council has at times failed to fulfil its responsibility to maintain international peace and security. We have seen these failures are seriously undermining the legitimacy of this important body on multiple occasions,” Tokyo’s Permanent Representative, Ishikane Kimihiro had said. 

Lavrov on Friday emphasized the issue, stating that “someone has proposed adding permanent members, while others have insisted that non-permanent ones be added, but the fact is that emerging markets are catastrophically underrepresented.” He further reminded that there is a “disproportionate presence” of six Western nations in the 15-member UN Security Council. “We have spoken in favour of India and Brazil [as members], and in this light, we support the representation of Africa,” he said. Lavrov slammed West’s behind-the-scene political manoeuvres on the international arena, which he stressed have undermined the key principle of the UN Charter.