Ex-Singapore diplomat bats for India’s permanent membership at UNSC, asks UK to relinquish its seat: Report

India should get its rightful place as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), while United Kingdom should give up its permanent seat, NDTV reported former Singapore diplomat professor Kishore Mahbubani as saying on 31 August.

Mahbubani talked about the much-needed reforms in the United Nations, as quoted by NDTV, “There is absolutely no question that India is the third-most powerful country in the world today after the United States and China. And that Great Britain is no longer 'great'.”

The former Singapore diplomat explained why the UK should relinquish its seat, stating that the UK has not used its veto power for decades, fearing backlash. "So, the logical thing for the UK to do is give up its seat to India," he added.

Mahbubani also mentioned the founders of the UN ensured that all great powers of the time vested interests in the organisation in order to make it work.

"The lesson that (UN's founders) learned from the collapse of the League of Nations early in the 20th century is that if a great power leaves, the organisation collapses," the former diplomat said.

"But they also believed that you must have the great powers of today, not the great powers of yesterday. Unfortunately, they didn't create a mechanism for changing the seats," he said, adding, "Another reason for the UK to give up its seat is that it will free them up to act independently."

India calls for urgent reform in UNSC negotiations:

Earlier on 27 August, India Ambassador Yojna Patel, Deputy Permanent Representative of India, reiterated the call for a more decisive and transparent approach to the reform of the Security Council.

India Ambassador Yojna Patel even called for emphasizing the need for text-based negotiations to address long-standing issues and expressed gratitude for the efforts by the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) process.

With agency inputs.