Putin calls for expanding UN Security Council representation for Asia, Africa, Latin America

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - NEW DELHI — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called for expanding the UN Security Council to increase representation for countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, saying the move would help strengthen the United Nations’ role in global affairs.

Addressing the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Putin said Russia places particular importance on preserving and strengthening the UN’s central role and urged BRICS members to continue coordinating efforts to improve the organization’s effectiveness.

“Naturally, expanding the UN Security Council — specifically by increasing representation for countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America — would contribute to this goal,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Putin also called for reforms to major global economic institutions, saying there was a “long-standing need” to improve the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization to better reflect current political and economic realities.

He said the institutions remained important platforms for dialogue among leading economies and called for greater coordination among BRICS members within them.

Turning to BRICS, Putin said the grouping’s intellectual and technological capabilities represented a major advantage and argued that it had established itself as one of the key centers of global governance.

He said decisions taken collectively by BRICS members were playing an increasingly important role in international politics, security, economic cooperation and humanitarian affairs.

Against the backdrop of what he described as an emerging multipolar world order, Putin urged BRICS countries to strengthen multilateralism, broaden the participation of developing countries in global governance and increase their representation in key international institutions.

Putin acknowledged that the transition toward a multipolar system was facing resistance.

“The formation of a multipolar world is not proceeding without difficulties — we can all see this,” he said, accusing countries accustomed to what he called “colonial” thinking of seeking to contain rising competitors.

“They are unwilling to accept the changing reality and strive by all means to contain their rising competitors,” Putin said, citing tariff wars, sanctions and the use of “brute force.”