# Brazil, Germany, India and Japan Demand Security Council Reform as Guterres Calls Africa's Exclusion Indefensible

A senior Russian lawmaker responded that abolishing the veto would be a tragic error, marking the divide between the states that want the 1945 structure changed and the ones that hold its privileges.

- Published: 2026-09-23T10:54:04.121Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-09-23/brazil-germany-india-and-japan-demand-security-council-refor
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: geopolitics
- Sources: [Kommersant](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8973128), [AllAfrica](https://allafrica.com/stories/202609230102.html), [Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/9/23/world-leaders-say-un-security-council-failing-to-function), [RIA Novosti](https://ria.ru/20260923/veto-2119740096.html)

The foreign ministers of Brazil, Japan, India and Germany, known collectively as the G4, issued a [joint call for urgent Security Council reform](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8973128) on the sidelines of the General Assembly, the Russian daily Kommersant reported. Their argument is that the council cannot discharge its responsibility for international peace and security in its present composition, because regions including Africa and Latin America hold no permanent seat. The G4 ministers described comprehensive reform as [an essential part of making the United Nations reflect current geopolitical realities](https://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl%2F31868%2FJoint_Press_Statement_by_the_Foreign_Ministers_of_the_G4_countries__Brazil_Germany_India_and_Japan_On_United_Nations_Security_Council_Reform=).

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the same case from the institution's own leadership, saying Africa's continued absence from the permanent membership is [no longer defensible](https://allafrica.com/stories/202609230102.html). Al Jazeera reported that multiple heads of state and government used their General Assembly addresses to say the council [is failing to function](https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/9/23/world-leaders-say-un-security-council-failing-to-function).

Moscow answered directly. Vladimir Dzhabarov, a senior member of the Russian upper house's international affairs committee, said removing the veto would be [a tragic mistake](https://ria.ru/20260923/veto-2119740096.html), according to RIA Novosti. That position is shared in practice, if not always in public, by the other permanent members, since any amendment to the charter requires their assent.

The structural point is that reform requires the consent of exactly those states whose privileges reform would dilute. The consequence is not a redesigned council but a steady migration of coordination to other venues, from the expanded BRICS grouping to regional security arrangements and new middle-power coalitions.

## What this means

When the principal forum for managing inter-state conflict cannot act, states hedge by building parallel arrangements, and that dispersal is what investors see as fragmented trade rules, competing technology standards and overlapping security guarantees. The near-term effect on prices is small. The medium-term effect runs through the cost of doing cross-border business, because firms must satisfy more than one regulatory and sanctions regime at once. Countries pressing hardest for reform, notably India and Brazil, gain diplomatic standing from the campaign whether or not the council changes.

## What to watch

- Whether the intergovernmental negotiations produce any text that the permanent members agree to discuss, which is the minimum evidence that reform is more than an annual speech.
- Whether African Union members convert the Guterres endorsement into a unified candidate proposal, since division over which African states would hold seats has blocked progress before.
- The growth of alternative coordination venues such as BRICS and new middle-power groupings, which measures where states actually take their disputes.