India at the UN: An 80-Year-Old Security Council Is Losing Authority Without Reform
India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador P. Harish (Harish Parvathaneni), spoke at the UN General Assembly on 22 October 2026 about reforming the UN Security Council (UNSC).
He said the UN, founded 80 years ago (in 1945), is struggling to deliver peace today. An organisation that cannot renew its main body, he argued, will find it harder and harder to command authority in a world that has moved far beyond 1945.
India repeated its long-held position: the Council must grow in both categories of membership (permanent and non-permanent), with a bigger voice for developing countries of the Global South.
India has also said reform talks must move to text-based negotiations (talks on a single written draft) with clear milestones and timelines, instead of only exchanging speeches.
Earlier in 2026, India backed the African model of reform at the reform talks (April 2026) and called for expansion in both categories at the Council's annual debate on working methods (August 2026).
The statement adds to the pressure for reform but does not mean change is close. Any change in the Council's membership needs an amendment to the UN Charter.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC): Composition, Powers, and the Veto
The UN Security Council is the UN body that is mainly responsible for keeping international peace and security. Its resolutions on serious matters are legally binding on all member countries. It has 15 members: 5 permanent members with a veto (the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China) and 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two years. A resolution on an important matter needs 9 "yes" votes and no "no" vote from any permanent member.
India's point is that the Council's 1945 structure, with permanent seats only for the five main winners of the Second World War, no longer matches today's world. India argues this gap weakens the Council's authority.
UN Security Council Reform: G4, Uniting for Consensus and the IGN Process
UN Security Council reform means changing the Council so that it better reflects today's world. The main questions are: how many members it should have, whether new permanent seats should be added, what to do about the veto, and how to give fair seats to regions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. Countries have discussed this for more than 30 years, and the talks have a formal name: the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN). So far, no reform has been agreed, because countries are split into rival groups with very different plans.
India's warning that the UN "cannot renew its principal organ" points directly at the IGN deadlock. The talks still have no negotiating text after more than 15 years. By calling for text-based negotiations and expansion in both categories, India is pressing to turn the talks into real negotiations in the UN's 81st session.
- UN founded: 1945 (Charter in force 24 October 1945); 80th anniversary in 2025
- UN membership: 51 founding members in 1945; 193 today
- UNSC: 15 members (5 permanent with veto, 10 elected for two-year terms)
- India: 8 terms as a non-permanent member, most recently 2021-2022; member of the G4 and the L.69 group
- India's Permanent Representative to the UN: Ambassador P. Harish (Harish Parvathaneni)
- India's demands: expansion in both categories, more seats for the Global South, text-based negotiations with timelines
- Charter amendment (Article 108): two-thirds of the General Assembly (at least 129 of 193) plus ratification by two-thirds of members including all P5
- IGN started in 2009 under decision 62/557 (2008)