India Faces First Contested UNSC Bid In Decades

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the UN's main body for keeping international peace and security. It has 15 members: five permanent members with veto power (the P5: the US, UK, France, Russia and China) and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms. A non-permanent UNSC seat requires a two-thirds majority of UNGA votes. This means a candidate needs support from most of the 193-member General Assembly, not just a simple majority.

Seats are shared among five regional groups: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and Others. Each group nominates candidates for its own quota of seats. When a region agrees on just one candidate, called a consensus candidate, the election becomes a formality. It is not a real contest. This is how India has usually been elected in the past.

India has served on the UNSC eight times since independence. It also pushes for permanent Council membership through the G4 grouping with Brazil, Germany and Japan. India argues that the Council's make-up has stayed almost frozen. UN membership has grown sharply since the last expansion in 1965. Alongside this reform push, India takes part in many other platforms. These range from treaty-based bodies like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to informal, non-binding forums. These forums are meant only for coordinating diplomatic positions.