No countries U.S. pitching to UNSC to agree if given no veto right

Ukraine’sformer permanent representative to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko suggests that the new countries named by the U.S. as potential permanent members of the UN Security Council will not agree to this if they are not provided with a right of veto.

The diplomat expressed this opinion on the air of the national telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The former ambassador noted that the right of veto gives the current permanent members of the Security Council a certain status in the world and the opportunity to influence international global processes. According to him, no one will voluntarily refuse this status.

"Regarding the issue of new members of the Security Council, named by the U.S. president or American diplomats, ... all these proposals refer to permanent membership without the right of veto. None of these countries - neither Japan, nor Brazil, nor Germany, nor India, nor any other country - will ever agree to be permanent members without the right of veto," Yelchenko said.

He noted that permanent membership in the UN Security Council and the right of veto is an indivisible status and that "no one will go there without it."

As reported, the White House strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said on September 18 that U.S. President Joe Biden will propose at the session of the UN General Assembly that the composition of the UNSC be expanded to include five to six new permanent members, including India, Brazil, Germany and Japan. Brazil and South Africa are considered in the U.S. as possible permanent members.

Currently, the UN Security Council consists of five permanent members: China, the Russian Federation, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. It also has 10 non-permanent members who are elected for two-year terms.