India and Brazil are seen by Russia as serious contenders for the role of permanent members of the UN Security Council. Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN in Geneva, said so in an interview with Izvestia.

“The discussion on the issue of expanding the membership of the UN Security Council has been going on for almost 20 years. There are various proposals. In particular, candidates such as Germany, Japan, India and Brazil are mentioned. From our perspective, the Security Council needs to be reformed through enlargement at the expense of developing countries. Nearly half of the current composition of the Security Council of 15 countries are representatives of the Western camp. There is a clear under-representation of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” – said the diplomat.

However, according to him, the discussions on the enlargement of the UN Security Council are very difficult, and they have not produced any concrete results for 20 years.

“As for India and Brazil, we see them as serious contenders for this role. This is a matter of further negotiations, as so far no progress has been made in this regard. Although if we want to see the UN Security Council reflect the interests of all states, then its reorganization is only possible through geographic and regional expansion,” – added Gennady Gatilov.