UK foreign secretary calls for expansion of UN security council

The global south deserves a more powerful voice at the world’s top table by expanding the UN security council, the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

Cleverly also called for a review of the use of the veto by the council’s five permanent members, adding that the world’s poorest countries feel their voice is not heard even on issues of direct concern to them.

In a speech billed as the first in praise of the global multilateral system by a Conservative foreign secretary for 30 years, he said he had listened carefully to the global south’s leaders and that they felt wealthy countries were “hoarding power and neglecting their responsibilities”.

Cleverly said power was shifting to Latin America and the Indo-Pacific, and that it would be countries in these regions that would decide whether the system endured. Without bold strategic reform, he said, “there is a real risk that the global south will walk away from the global trading system”.

He told a conference at the Chatham House thinktank in London: “One thing that struck me is when I speak to ministers they do say over and over again they feel again the multilateral system too often talks about the issues which are on the hearts and minds of the Euro-Atlantic region and less about the Indo-Pacific, Latin America or Africa.

Cleverly said he wanted permanent African representation at the G20 and for security council membership to be extended to India, Brazil, Germany and Japan.

The UK is one of five veto-wielding permanent members on the 15-strong council, and since Brexit that status has looked increasingly exposed.

Cleverly said discussion about the continuing value of the veto was growing among security council members as its use by Russia during the wars in Ukraine and Syria had largely immobilised the body, with some of the moral authority transferring to the larger UN general assembly.