SOCHI. Oct 19 (Interfax) - Moscow doesn't think that the countries of the West need extra seats on the UN Security Council, and instead, these seats should be given to developing Asian, African, and Latin American nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Yes, there is a need to adapt the UN and to adapt the Security Council to the new realities, because there are now not 50 countries, as when the UN was created, and not 70 as when the Security Council was expanded, but far more, 193 UN members alone. And of course, developing nations quite rightly insist on being given greater representation in the UN's main organ," Lavrov told reporters in Sochi on Tuesday.
At present, the West has at least six members on the 15-seat Security Council, he said.
"And when Japan is selected for the Security Council from Asia, that's the seventh vote at the disposal of the Western policies being pushed through the UNSC. So, of course the West shouldn't be given more seats in this organ, but the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America certainly should be," Lavrov said.
When asked to comment on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call for a review of the balance of forces within the UNSC, Lavrov said, "I agree with him that the quintet of the UNSC's permanent members have no right to dictate the fate of the world, it neither has nor claims that. The quintet claims precisely the powers written down in the UN charter. The charter reflects the collective will of all members of the global community and the quintet bears particular responsibility for the global state of affairs, chiefly to avoid a global conflict."