Lavrov shuts Germany and Japan out of Russia’s Security Council reform plan
At the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov opposed new permanent Security Council seats for Germany and Japan while backing India and Brazil. His distinction draws a line through a long-running reform debate: countries seeking the same class of seat would face sharply different answers from an existing permanent member. The remarks state Russia's position, not a Council decision or an agreed reform plan.
Geopolitics··Midday
Moscow draws a line through the seat bids
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used his 26 September address to the UN General Assembly to set out different answers for countries seeking permanent seats on the Security Council. He backed India and Brazil and called for wider African representation. He opposed new permanent seats for Germany and Japan, describing both as pursuing militarisation and revanchism. The Times of India separately reported the same distinction from the speech. It is a Russian position in an unresolved reform debate, rather than a vote that changes the Council's membership. The proposed seats concern the Council's permanent category, whose members hold veto power. Lavrov's endorsement of India and Brazil followed repeated Russian support for those countries, while the newly voiced rejection of Germany and Japan marked the division he wanted to make in this speech. India and Brazil, Germany and Japan have all sought a larger role in UN decision-making, but Lavrov did not offer one common route for them. His criticism of the latter two was an allegation about their direction, not an independently established measure of their policies.[1], [2]
A speech framed around Western power
Lavrov presented the seat question as part of his wider argument that Western states use force and double standards while countries of the Global South and East seek greater influence. He accused European governments of arming Ukraine and obstructing negotiations, and said Russia's military operation there would continue until Moscow's stated objectives were achieved. Those claims formed the political frame for his Council reform position; the speech did not announce an agreement with other permanent members to change the body's composition. In the same address he said a US-backed peace plan had not brought peace to Gaza, warned that further settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank would leave no land for a Palestinian state, and repeated Moscow's call to lift the US blockade of Cuba. Those subjects show the breadth of the speech but did not alter his specific membership proposal: back India and Brazil, broaden African representation, and deny Germany and Japan additional permanent seats.[1]
Germany and Japan answer from the same UN week
The remarks came during a UN week in which Lavrov also met German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, their first face-to-face meeting at that level since 2022. Lavrov said Wadephul had repeated Berlin's public condemnation of Russia and questioned whether the meeting amounted to dialogue. A German delegation official said Wadephul had called on Moscow to abandon a dangerous escalation toward Germany, Europe and NATO. Those statements belong to the bilateral encounter; they were not a German acceptance of Lavrov's Council proposal. Japan's deputy UN ambassador Mikanagi Tomohiro responded to the wider criticism by saying his country was peace-loving and that freedom, democracy and fundamental rights guided its decisions. Lavrov's charge against Japan and Germany therefore drew an explicit Japanese rebuttal, while the permanent-seat disagreement remained open. None of the reports describes a Council reform timetable or a negotiated text that would give the backed countries seats.[1]
