DILI, 22 May 2026 (TATOLI) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday renewed his long-standing call for reform of the UN Security Council, calling it “absolutely essential” amid growing global instability.
Guterres made the call during a press conference on the final day of his official visit to Japan, which is marking 70 years of cooperation with the United Nations.
“The global problem-solving architecture — in particular, the UN Security Council and global financial institutions — are not as effective as they need to be at this challenging moment,” he said.
He stressed that “the most important reform that needs to be established is the reform of the UN Security Council.”
The Council is comprised of five permanent members – China, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia, who possess the right of veto – and 10 non-permanent members who are elected for two-year terms.
Guterres called for expanding the number of permanent members, noting that only one Asian country is included when the continent contains half the world’s population, while no African or Latin American countries are represented.
“This is a serious problem of legitimacy and of ineffectiveness, and it is absolutely essential to increase the number of Permanent Members and to increase the number of non-Permanent Members to make the Security Council correspond to today’s world, to the realities of today’s world,” he said.
Guterres further underlined the need for “a multilateral system that is more fair, more able to continue to defend international law and hold countries accountable to it.”
He also upheld the UN as “the essential, one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights,” but said the Organization is only as strong as Member States’ commitment to it.
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