China and Russia have reiterated their support for India and Brazil to play a greater role in the United Nations, including its Security Council, in the New Delhi Declaration of the BRICS summit.

According to the Declaration, the leaders of BRICS countries reiterated their support for a “comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council”.

The Declaration pressed for the need to make the UN body “more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s membership so that it can adequately respond to prevailing global challenges and support the legitimate aspirations of emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, including BRICS countries, to play a greater role in international affairs, in particular in the UN, including its Security Council”.

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The UN Security Council has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Each permanent member holds veto power over resolutions. This number has remained unchanged since the Council’s inception in 1945.

“We stress that the UN Security Council reform is to lead to the amplified voice of the Global South. Recalling the 2022 Beijing and 2023 Johannesburg-II Leaders’ Declarations, China and Russia, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, reiterate their support to the aspirations of Brazil and India to play a greater role in the UN, including its Security Council,” the Declaration stated.

Over the past several years, major emerging nations have called for an expansion of the UN Security Council. India has been at the forefront of this demand.

In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday pitched for a greater role for developing countries in global decision-making. He said the Global South should move from being a “rule-taker” to “rule-shaper”.

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Addressing the opening session of BRICS, the Prime Minister said the current global decision-making architecture looks like a “pyramid” – the powerful at the top are making the decisions, and those at the bottom are the ones affected and have no powers and leverage.

Prime Minister Modi observed that the “pyramid of privilege” should be transformed into a “platform of partnership”.