Recently, on 23 September 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the ‘Summit of the Future’ at the UN General Assembly in New York. During his speech, he called for reforms in global institutions like the United Nations (here, here, here). In this context, several posts (here, here, here, here, and here) are going viral on social media, claiming that India has obtained permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and gained veto power. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in these posts.
Claim: India has been granted permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and has acquired veto power.
Fact: India has not yet been granted permanent membership in the UNSC with veto power. Information available on the United Nations website confirms this. Currently, only five countries—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are permanent members of the UNSC, and only these permanent members have veto power. During the recently held 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79), permanent member nations of the UNSC, such as the US, France, and the UK, extended their support for India to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted a relevant keyword search to verify the accuracy of the viral claim that India has been granted permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with veto power. However, our search did not yield any credible reports supporting this claim. If such a development had occurred, it would have undoubtedly attracted significant global media attention.
We then visited the official website of the United Nations to verify whether India has been granted permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with veto power. According to the information available on the UN website, India is not yet a permanent member of the UNSC and does not hold veto power. Currently, only five countries—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are permanent members of the UNSC, and only these permanent members have veto power. The UNSC is composed of five permanent member nations along with ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly. Currently, Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Switzerland are the 10 non-permanent members of the UNSC. We also looked into the United Nations agenda for September 2024 but could not find any topics related to UNSC reforms or giving veto power to any nations (here, here). Based on all this information, it is clear that India has not yet been granted permanent membership in the UNSC with veto power.
Significance of veto power in the UNSC:
Only the permanent members of the UNSC—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)—possess a special voting power known as the ‘right to veto.’ If any one of these five permanent members casts a negative vote in the 15-member Security Council, the resolution or decision will not be approved. All five permanent members have exercised their veto power at various times. If a permanent member does not fully agree with a proposed resolution but does not wish to veto it, they may choose to abstain, allowing the resolution to pass if it receives the required nine favourable votes (here).
During our search, we found several news reports (here, here, and here), published recently in September 2024, stating that UNSC permanent member nations like the US, France, and the UK have extended their support for India to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council during 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
While addressing the general debate at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on 26 September 2024, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated, “We want to see permanent African representation on the Council, as well as Brazil, India, Japan, and Germany as permanent members, along with more seats for elected members” (here, here, here, here).
While addressing the general debate at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that France supports expanding the composition of the Security Council. According to him, Germany, Japan, India, and Brazil should be permanent members, along with two countries designated by Africa to represent the continent (here, here).
Speaking at the ‘Summit of the Future’ during the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York on 23 September 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States supports permanent seats on the Security Council for India, Japan, and Germany (here).
To sum it up, India has not yet been granted permanent membership in the UNSC, nor does it hold veto power.
