On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly expressed London’s support for Brazil’s ambitions for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council in Brasilia.
At a press conference with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, Cleverly said that the United Kingdom has a “national interest” in Brazil having “a louder voice” on the global stage, particularly at the United Nations.
According to him, London will support these aspirations “enthusiastically”.
The head of British diplomacy stressed that for the United Nations to maintain its current importance on the global stage, “it is necessary to undertake a reform” of the Security Council, although he admitted that it would not be a quick process.
“We recognize that the balance of global power has migrated southward. It is a fact that has to be recognized in many institutions, including the United Nations,” Cleverly said in the first visit to the South American country by a British foreign minister in nine years.
Vieira affirmed that Brazil will work with numerous countries to ensure that negotiations on UN reform, “which are still very informal, can be increasingly normalized”.
The Brazilian minister said his country wants to negotiate UN reform based on a written document “to avoid starting discussions from scratch every year”.
Brazil, the largest Latin American economy and the most populous country in the region, is part of the so-called G4 group, along with Germany, India, and Japan.
For years, these countries have been promoting expanding the permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
However, the reforms are blocked by the five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France).
Since the creation of the UN, that body has had only those five veto-wielding members.
Cleverly’s visit to Brazil, at the end of a regional tour that also took him to Chile, Jamaica, and Colombia, comes weeks after London announced a significant contribution to the Brazilian fund to protect the Amazon.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged more than US$100 million to the fund this month during a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the eve of the coronation of King Charles III.
With information from EFE and AFP
News Brazil, English news Brazil, Brazilian diplomacy, UN Security Council