P5 show no interest in ceding Security Council veto authority

At the 193-member United Nations, power is concentrated among the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom — any one of which can block international criticism of its own activities. The spread of war this year has added impetus to a perennial call from non-permanent powers to expand the council and loosen the P5’s grip.

“Let’s recognize that a system in which the will of more than 190 countries is subject to the whims of five countries is neither fair nor capable of fully establishing trust,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the General Assembly on Tuesday. “The Security Council must absolutely be reformed in accordance with the principle that ‘the world is bigger than five,’” he said.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said the concentration of power weakens the credibility of the U.N. because it has been unable to address the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II. “We are all held hostage by the inaction of the Security Council failing to fulfill its role,” Lula told the body on Tuesday. The Brazilian leader last year dubbed the P5 “lords of war” after the United States, along with Israel, conducted 12 days of bombing aimed at erasing Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

Calls to restructure the United Nations are not new. But the issue is gaining fresh attention in this year’s race to succeed Guterres. Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis, a former vice president of Costa Rica, has so far won two of three secret ballots in the selection process, according to the Journal. Her standing among the P5 is unknown, and any one of the five permanent members can veto a selection made by the wider membership.

Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, has repeatedly said the P5 has hamstrung the United Nations. In his address Tuesday, he said the group lacks legitimacy without any Latin American or African representation among its permanent members. “Strong, effective institutions that reflect the realities and the progressively changing relative weight of countries and economies in today’s world — not the power arrangements of 80 years ago,” Guterres told the assembly.

The concentration of power also makes it harder for the United Nations to collect dues from large economies that feel their governments’ voices go unheard, the Journal reported. Of the P5, only the United Kingdom paid its UN dues within the month they were owed this year.

Beyond Turkey and Brazil, other fast-growing powers — including India and Nigeria — are increasingly vocal in criticizing the P5, the Journal reported. These countries represent growing shares of global economic output and population.

The five permanent members tend to respond to world challenges in a predictable pattern, with China and Russia on one side and the United States, United Kingdom and France on the other. Several actions this year — including the U.S. bombing of Iran and the military arrest of Venezuela’s president — are widely viewed by U.N. members as violations of the world body’s foundational charter, which forbids attacks on fellow members. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine is viewed the same way, and as part of a pattern of might-makes-right led by countries that gained power as victors in World War II and led creation of the U.N. as avowed defenders of global peace.

French President Emmanuel Macron nudged the power-concentration argument in a different direction Tuesday, turning to artificial intelligence. “There are some who wish to make us believe that only two powers, the U.S. and China, will be taking the decisions,” he said.

In his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, President Trump framed his decision to go to war with Iran as unavoidable in his bid to stop the Islamic government from getting a nuclear weapon.

Despite the near-universal calls for reform, the five permanent members show no interest in relinquishing their veto authority, the Journal reported.