Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: the People's Republic of China (formerly the Republic of China), the French Republic, the Russian Federation (formerly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America.[1]

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The permanent members were all allies in World War II (and the victors of that war), and are also all states with nuclear weapons (though not all five had developed nuclear weapons prior to the formation of the United Nations). The remaining 10 members of the Council are elected by the General Assembly, giving a total of 15 UN member states. All five permanent members have the power of veto, which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support.[2]

Current permanent members
See also: China and the United Nations, France and the United Nations, Russia and the United Nations, Soviet Union and the United Nations, United Kingdom and the United Nations, and United States and the United Nations

The following is a table of the current permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Country Current state representation Former state representation Current executive leaders Current representative
China  People's Republic of China Republic of China (1945–1971) President: Xi Jinping
Premier: Li Keqiang[lower-alpha 1]		 Zhang Jun[3]
 France French Fifth Republic Provisional Government of the French Republic (1945–1946)
 French Fourth Republic (1946–1958)		 President: Emmanuel Macron
Prime Minister: Édouard Philippe		 Nicolas de Rivière[4]
 Russia  Russian Federation  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1945–1991) President: Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin		 Vasily Nebenzya[5]
 United Kingdom  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland N/A Queen: Elizabeth II
Prime Minister: Boris Johnson		 Karen Pierce[6]
 United States  United States of America N/A President: Donald Trump Kelly Craft[7]

History
The original permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in 1945 (dark blue) with their respective colonies and other holdings shown (pale blue).
Leaders of the five permanent member states at a summit in 2000. Clockwise from front left: Chinese President Jiang Zemin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French President Jacques Chirac.

At the UN's founding in 1945, the five permanent members of the Security Council were the French Republic, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There have been two seat changes since then, although not reflected in Article 23 of the United Nations Charter as it has not been accordingly amended:

Additionally, France reformed its provisional government into the French Fourth Republic in 1946 and later into the French Fifth Republic in 1958, both under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle. France maintained its seat as there was no change in its international status or recognition, although many of its overseas possessions eventually became independent.

The five permanent members of the Security Council were the victorious powers in World War II and have maintained the world's most powerful military forces ever since. They annually top the list of countries with the highest military expenditures; in 2011, they spent over US$1 trillion combined on defence, accounting for over 60% of global military expenditures (the U.S. alone accounting for over 40%). They are also five of the world's six largest arms exporters (along with Germany[8]), and are the only nations officially recognised as "nuclear-weapon states" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), though there are other states known or believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons.

Veto power
Main article: United Nations Security Council veto power

The "power of veto" refers to the veto power wielded solely by the permanent members, enabling them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft. The veto does not apply to procedural votes, which is significant in that the Security Council's permanent membership can vote against a "procedural" draft resolution, without necessarily blocking its adoption by the Council.

The veto is exercised when any permanent member—the so-called "P5"—casts a "negative" vote on a "substantive" draft resolution. Abstention or absence from the vote by a permanent member does not prevent a draft resolution from being adopted.

Expansion
Main article: Reform of the United Nations Security Council
The G4 nations: Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan, that support one another's bids for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.[9]

There have been proposals suggesting the introduction of new permanent members. The candidates usually mentioned are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. They comprise the group of four countries known as the G4 nations, which mutually support one another's bids for permanent seats.[10]

This sort of reform has traditionally been opposed by the Uniting for Consensus group, which is composed primarily of nations that are regional rivals and economic competitors of the G4. The group is led by Italy and Spain (opposing Germany), Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina (opposing Brazil), Pakistan (opposing India), and South Korea (opposing Japan), in addition to Turkey, Indonesia and others. Since 1992, Italy and other council members have instead proposed semi-permanent seats or expanding the number of temporary seats.

Most of the leading candidates for permanent membership are regularly elected onto the Security Council by their respective groups. Japan was elected for eleven two-year terms, Brazil for ten terms, and Germany for three terms. India has been elected to the council eight times in total, with the most recent successful bid being in 2020.

In 2013, the P5 and G4 members of the UN Security Council accounted for eight of the world's ten largest defence budgets, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Current leaders of the permanent members

The following are the heads of state and government that represent the permanent members of the UN Security Council as of 2020:

Notes

Footnotes
  1. The de jure head of government of China is the Premier, whose current holder is Li Keqiang. The President of China is legally a ceremonial office, but the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (de facto leader) has always held this office since 1993, except for the months of transition. The current paramount leader is President Xi Jinping.
  2. De facto leader since 15 November 2012.
  3. De facto leader since 7 May 2000.

References
  1. "Security Council Members | United Nations Security Council". www.un.org. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  2. [1] Archived 20 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Ambassador Zhang Jun, PR". chnun.chinamission.org.cn. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  4. "Nicolas de Rivière". France ONU. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  5. "Постоянное представительство Российской Федерации при ООН". russiaun.ru. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  6. "Karen Pierce DCMG". GOV.UK. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  7. "Ambassador Kelly Craft". United States Mission to the United Nations. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  8. [2] Archived 30 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Sharma, Rajeev (27 September 2015). "India pushes the envelope at G4 Summit: PM Modi tells UNSC to make space for largest democracies". First Post. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  10. Sharma, Rajeev (27 September 2015). "India pushes the envelope at G4 Summit: PM Modi tells UNSC to make space for largest democracies". First Post. Retrieved 20 October 2015.

Further reading

See also
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.