UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the possibility of enlarging the Security Council is now “seriously on the table” but expressed pessimism that the right of veto would be put into question.
Guterres made the remarks while speaking to reporters during his annual end-of-year conference in New York on Monday.
He was responding to a question on UN Security Council reform to make the powerful world body more fit for purpose to deal with crises such as the Ukraine war.
“The central questions are related to the composition of the Security Council and to the right of veto. Now this is a matter for member states, the Secretariat has no influence in these negotiations,” Guterres said.
“I think that the during our General Assembly session in September, for the first time, I heard from the United States and from Russia clearly the indication that they were in favour of an enlargement of the number of permanent members of the Security Council,” he said.
He added that there was a proposal from France and UK some time ago for some restrictions in the use of the right of veto.
“But I remain pessimistic about the possibility of the right of veto to be seriously put into question,” he said .
The UN chief added that reform of the Security Council needs two-thirds of the votes of the General Assembly plus the five positive votes of the permanent members of the Security Council - China, France, Russia, UK and the US.