Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called for expanding the UN Security Council to increase representation for countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The African Union has been pushing for more African representation in global institutions. The continent accounts for more than a quarter of the UN's membership and holds no permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
Addressing the 18th BRICS summit in the Indian capital New Delhi, Putin said Russia attaches great importance to preserving and strengthening the UN's central role in global affairs and believes BRICS members should continue working together to improve the organization's effectiveness.
"Naturally, expanding the UN Security Council - specifically by increasing representation for countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America - would contribute to this goal," Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.
Adapt to realities
Putin also said there was a "long-standing need" to improve global economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO), which he said were struggling to adapt to current "political and economic realities."
He said the IMF, WTO and World Bank remained important channels for dialogue among the world's leading economies and called for stronger coordination among BRICS countries within the institutions.
Turning to BRICS, Putin said its members possess significant intellectual and technological capabilities, describing them as a major advantage for the grouping.
He said BRICS had "rightfully established itself among the key centers of global governance," arguing that developments in international politics, security, economic cooperation and humanitarian affairs increasingly depend on the collective decisions of its members.
Strengthen multilateralism
Putin said that amid an emerging multipolar world order, BRICS countries should work together to strengthen multilateralism, involve more countries in global governance and increase their participation in key international institutions.
"However, the formation of a multipolar world is not proceeding without difficulties -- we can all see this. It meets with resistance from those who are accustomed to thinking in fundamentally colonial terms -- dividing the world into a 'flourishing garden' and a 'wild jungle,' and living at the expense of others," he said.
"They are unwilling to accept the changing reality and strive by all means to contain their rising competitors," Putin added, saying such means included tariff wars, sanctions and "brute force."
