Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Singapore later this month, former Singaporean diplomat and acclaimed academic Kishore Mahbubani has called for urgent reforms in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), asserting that New Delhi deserves a permanent seat on the council.

In an interview with NDTV, Mahbubani argued that the United Kingdom should relinquish its permanent seat at the UNSC to India.

“India is undeniably the third-most powerful country in the world today, after the United States and China. Meanwhile, Great Britain is no longer ‘great’,” he remarked.

India in the past has referred to the privileged status of the Permanent-five member states as “a continuation of the mindset of the post 1945 era: to the victors belong the spoils”, a reference to the way the permanent membership was established at the UN Security Council by the allied powers of second World War who emerged victorious in 1945.

Mahbubani explained that the UK has not exercised its veto power at the UNSC for decades, largely due to fear of backlash. “The logical step for the UK is to cede its seat to India, he said.

Commenting on the broader need for UN reforms, Mahbubani said that the founders of the UN designed the organisation to include the major powers of their time, ensuring these nations had vested interests in maintaining its effectiveness.

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“The founders of the UN learned from the early 20th-century collapse of the League of Nations that if a great power leaves, the organisation falls apart,” he said. “However, they also believed that the UNSC should represent the great powers of today, not those of the past. Unfortunately, they did not create a mechanism to update the council’s membership.”

Mahbubani added that if the UK were to give up its seat, it would also gain the freedom to act more independently on the global stage.

(With inputs from agencies)