Why is Lula advocating for reform of the UN Security Council?

Lais Modelli, Deutsche Welle, via World Opera — "We live in a world where the UN Security Council, all the permanent members, are the world's largest arms producers, the world's largest arms sellers, and the world's largest participants in wars. So, I wonder if it isn't up to us, other countries that are not permanent members of the Security Council, to make a change at the UN, to put more countries [on the Council]," said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at a press conference this Wednesday (April 26), during an official trip to Spain.

The previous day, in Portugal, Lula stated in a speech to the Portuguese Parliament that the Security Council "is practically paralyzed." "This is because its composition, determined at the end of the Second World War, 78 years ago, does not represent the balance of power in the contemporary world," he said.

The expansion and diversification of the UN Security Council has been a central theme in the foreign policy of Lula's governments since his first term (2003-2006), when Brazil, along with Germany, Japan, and India, created the G4, an alliance between these countries to support each other in the pursuit of a permanent seat on one of the main bodies of the United Nations. Since 2005, the G4 has been calling for a structural reform of the Council.

"It is clear that the world has changed considerably since 1945, and many countries aspire to more power in international organizations. In practice, Brazil would gain veto power and greater diplomatic negotiating capacity. It would have a different role in world diplomacy," analyzes Vitelio Brustolin, professor of International Relations at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) and researcher at Harvard University.

A reform of the Security Council has occurred only once in history, in 1965, in the context of the Cold War, when the UN expanded the number of non-permanent members from six to ten, but without altering the concentration of power in the body in the hands of only five permanent members: the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France.

The Security Council

The Security Council was created along with the United Nations in 1945, with the goal of promoting world peace, as was the General Assembly, another fundamental mechanism of the UN, but with a different function.

"Decisions regarding international peace and security are the responsibility of the Security Council, while the General Assembly can only make recommendations on these issues," explains Brustolin.

Furthermore, while the General Assembly is made up of all 193 UN member states, the Security Council is composed of only 15 members, five of which are permanent with veto power (USA, China, Russia, United Kingdom and France) and ten non-permanent, rotating members without veto power, elected every two years.

"In the General Assembly, a country like India, with its more than 1,4 billion inhabitants, is entitled to a single vote, as are the Marshall Islands, with their 70 inhabitants. In the Security Council, a single country with a permanent seat has the power to oppose all 14 other members and block resolutions," Brustolin exemplifies.

Therefore, according to Eveline Brigido, professor of International Relations at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), the permanent member states have a very relevant position of power in the international system.

"These countries [USA, China, Russia, United Kingdom and France] are part of a group that has the exclusive right to decide on international security issues, in addition to shaping the global security agenda. In other words, it is a privileged position that grants its members a great deal of bargaining power," he says.

Brazil's quest for a permanent seat

The expert points out that different Brazilian governments were interested in a permanent seat on the body, but it was only in 1994 that this interest was formalized.

"The person who explicitly proposed at the UN that Brazil was a candidate for permanent membership was the diplomat Celso Amorim, in 1994, who later became Minister [of Foreign Affairs] in Lula's government starting in 2003," recalls Brigido. Currently, Amorim is a special advisor to the Presidential Palace for international affairs.

Despite the country's natural resources and vast territory, Brazil is still considered by many analysts to be peripheral in international affairs, Brigido points out.

"The government's interest in a permanent seat is related to the recognition of Brazil as a regional power, as well as the position of power and prestige of being in the select group of countries that decide on international security issues," says the expert.

Lula's attacks

Since assuming his third term as president in January of this year, Lula has sought to present himself to the world as a potential mediator in the war in Ukraine, in an attempt to project Brazil onto the international stage.

"In addition to Lula's statements, presidential advisor Celso Amorim will be sent to Kiev, Ukraine, to speak personally with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Previously, Amorim had already spoken with Putin on a discreet trip," says Brustolin.

At the end of March, Amorim traveled to Moscow to discuss Brazil's proposal to create a group of countries to negotiate peace in Ukraine. A few days later, during a visit to Brazil, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, expressed support for Brazil as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

During his second term, Lula helped broker the nuclear agreement that was later signed by Iran.

"When the Lula government sought to mediate, along with Turkey, a nuclear agreement with Iran, the focus was on greater diplomatic projection, aiming for a seat on the Security Council. Brazil does not have nuclear weapons and has formally adhered to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Therefore, the country is trying to stand out diplomatically for its peaceful tradition," says Brustolin.

According to Brigido, from ESPM, it is still too early to make a thorough analysis of Brazil's current foreign policy, but, so far, the other permanent members of the Council have not opposed Brazil as a possible member of this select group. "On the other hand, I see great difficulty in any eventual reform of the Security Council, as this would change the power configuration of states in the international system," he says.

Council paralyzed

Brustolin agrees with Lula's statement about the Security Council's current inability to resolve international conflicts, and affirms that simply expanding the number of permanent members would not solve the organization's problems.

"The permanent members have repeatedly violated the UN Charter, which establishes that a member of the Security Council that is a party to a 'controversy that could constitute a threat to international peace and security' must abstain from voting," says the professor and researcher.

He recalls that the Security Council met the day after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Of the 15 members, 11 voted in favor of a resolution condemning the invasion, three abstained, and only Russia voted against the resolution.

"Russia should not have voted; it expressly violated the UN Charter. However, countries like the US and the UK lost the legitimacy to condemn this act because they also did not obtain authorization from the Security Council to invade Iraq in 2003, and wars of aggression are prohibited by the UN Charter, only being possible with the approval of the Council," says Brustolin.

Among the 11 out of 15 Security Council members who supported the resolution against Russia's invasion of Ukraine was Brazil, which holds one of the body's temporary seats until this year.