After France, UK PM Keir Starmer Rallies For India's Permanent Seat At UNSC

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced to extend his support for India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. Starmer's announcement follows a similar one by French President Emmanuel Macron. “The Security Council has to change to become a more representative body, willing to act – not paralysed by politics,” said the British Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly in New York. “We want to see permanent African representation on the Council, Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members, and more seats for elected members as well," he added, reported Hindustan Times. India has asserted that it rightfully deserves a permanent membership to the 15-member council. It has contended that the council established in 1945, is “outdated and fails to represent the current geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.”Earlier French President Emmanuel Macron supported India's membership at the UN high table while advocating the expansion of the powerful UN body. "We have a Security Council that is blocked...Let’s make the UN more efficient. We have to make it more representative," Macron said on Wednesday. "That's why," he said, "France is in favour of the Security Council being expanded. Germany, Japan, India, and Brazil should be permanent members, as well as two countries that Africa will decide to represent it," he added. Currently, the UNSC comprises five permanent members and 10 non-permanent member countries which are elected for a two-year term by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Russia, the UK, China, France and the United States are the five permanent members. The recent term India had at the UN high table was in 2021-22 as a non-permanent member. There has been a growing demand to increase the number of permanent members to reflect the contemporary global reality.