UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday used his final address to the high-level UN General Assembly debate to make one of his strongest calls for reform of the Security Council, saying the powerful body must reflect contemporary geopolitical realities if it is to retain legitimacy and effectively respond to global challenges.
Addressing world leaders at the opening of the General Debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, Guterres said the Security Council had been designed in the aftermath of World War II but the world had since “fundamentally changed”. “We must also reform the Security Council so that it reflects today’s world with the legitimacy and effectiveness that today’s challenges demand,” he said.
Africa ‘stunning example’
Guterres pointed to Africa as the clearest example of the imbalance in the current structure. When the United Nations was founded in 1945, he said, most of the continent remained under colonial rule. More than eight decades later, Africa still does not have a permanent seat on the Council.
“A 21st-century Security Council without permanent African representation is unjust and indefensible. This must change,” Guterres said, drawing applause from leaders gathered in the General Assembly Hall.
The 15-member Security Council has five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — each possessing veto power, along with 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms.
Guterres said the wider problem went beyond the Council, arguing that institutions and systems of global governance continued to reflect “the power realities and interests of a largely bygone age” even as the distribution of economic, political and technological influence had changed significantly.
His remarks came at a time when divisions among the Council’s permanent members have repeatedly complicated efforts to reach common positions on major conflicts and security crises.
India’s longstanding demand
The push for Security Council reform has particular significance for India, which has for years sought expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories. New Delhi has maintained that the existing structure does not adequately reflect contemporary geopolitical and economic realities and has pressed for permanent representation for India as well as greater representation for Africa and other developing regions.
India is also seeking election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the 2028-29 term, with elections scheduled for June 2027.
Negotiations on Security Council reform have, however, remained deadlocked for years, with UN members differing over the size of an expanded Council, the categories of membership, regional representation and whether new permanent members should receive veto powers.
Warns against global fracture
In his address, Guterres said the world was moving irreversibly towards multipolarity, but warned that the form it takes would determine whether it produces greater cooperation or deeper fragmentation.
He outlined two possible paths — one characterised by fragmentation, mistrust, weakened institutions and zero-sum competition, and another based on what he called “networked multipolarity”, under which several centres of influence coexist within a common framework of international law and shared rules.
Such a system, he said, could help prevent the world from splitting into rival blocs with separate economic, technological and security structures. Competition between countries would remain, he added, but competition did not necessarily have to lead to confrontation.
Guterres also cautioned major powers against assuming that military, economic or technological strength alone could guarantee security and stability, arguing that the crises of recent years had exposed the limits of each.
The UN chief linked geopolitical divisions to a wider convergence of challenges, including wars, widening inequalities, climate change and the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Addressing these challenges, he said, required stronger multilateral institutions that reflected the changing relative weight of countries and economies rather than the global power arrangements of eight decades ago.
The speech was Guterres’s final address to the annual high-level General Assembly debate as Secretary-General. His second five-year term ends in December 2026. He received a standing ovation from world leaders, ministers, diplomats and senior UN officials at the conclusion of his address.