In September 2023, Lavrov addressed the UN General Assembly, urging it to review the current mechanism of forming the organization’s secretariat, saying it was no longer aligned with the times.
"The veto is not a privilege after all. It is a tool to ensure calibrated decisions. A tool, if you will, to prevent unilateral resolutions that could bring imbalance to world politics," Lavrov told a conference in the Rossiya Segodnya media center.
If the veto right is abandoned, the UN will turn into a "useless structure," which will only deepen global and regional tensions, Lavrov added.
A reform is a long process as it has to "reflect some common understanding at this stage of the tectonic changes that are taking place in the world in the context of multipolarity processes," the minister said.
The Security Council is one of the primary organs of the UN, responsible for maintaining international peace and security. It has 15 members: five permanent and ten non-permanent ones. The permanent members, which have a veto right, include Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and France. The non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.