Russia Joins Global Leaders Backing India's Bid For Permanent UNSC Seat, After UK, US, France

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has extended Russia's support for India and Brazil's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

In a significant boost to diplomatic ties, Russia on Saturday entered the growing list of countries backing India's long-standing demand for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This announcement came after the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Bhutan, Portugal, and Chile recently made similar endorsements. 

Supporting India and Brazil's bid for a permanent seat at UNSC, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during his address at the 79th United Nations General Assembly, stressed that a "fairer world order" requires the expansion of the representation of the Global South in the UNSC.

"We are not stepping away from dialogue with the West. In July, upon the proposal of Russia, there was an open debate in the Security Council on the subject of building a more just, more sustainable world order. We believe it is important to begin the discussion that has begun in the UN as well as in other platforms. A fairer world order undoubtedly requires the expansion of the representation of the Global South in the UN Security Council," Lavrov said.

While the Russian Foreign Minister advocated for a seat for India and Brazil at the UNSC, he strongly advocated against giving new positions to the West. "We support our position in favour of the candidacies of Brazil and India, while at the same time taking a positive decision on the well-known initiatives of the African Union. However, of course, we cannot even talk about any additional seats for Western countries, who are already excessively over-represented within the Security Council," Lavrov stated.

India has long sought a permanent seat in the UN's Security Council for the better representation of the interests of the developing world, a quest which recently gained momentum with support from the international community. Earlier on Friday, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay voiced support for India's bid for a permanent seat on the UNSC.

In his address, Lavrov further accused the West of trampling the values of globalisation. He said that Western countries have imposed a sanctions war against half of the nations in the world and are using the dollar as a "weapon." "Just like Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan in the past, the current Secretary-General advanced his own initiative, under the slogan 'rebooting the global cooperation'. It is an excellent slogan, who could be opposed to that," he said.

"But, what global cooperation can we really talk about at a time when the West has trampled all of these unshakeable values of globalisation that they have been telling us about for so many years from this...trying to convince us that they would ensure equal access for everyone to the goods of contemporary civilisation, where is the inviability of property, the presumption of innocence, freedom of speech, access to information, fair competition on markets with understandable and changing rules," the Russian leader added.

Calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace formula "hopeless," Lavrov urged Russia's partners to take into account the facts about the real causes of the situation. "We value the sincere aim of a number of our partners to advance mediation initiatives. We value their constructive focus on results, unlike the hopeless Zelenskyy peace formula. We call upon friends in their further efforts to fully take into account the facts about the real causes of the situation," he said.

In 2022, Zelenskyy presented Ukraine's 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the G20 Summit in Indonesia's Bali. The 10-point peace formula includes a path to nuclear safety and food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes and a final peace treaty with Moscow.