Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[1]

The permanent members were all allies in World War II (and the victors of that war), and are also all states with nuclear weapons (though not all five had developed nuclear weapons prior to the formation of the United Nations). The remaining 10 members of the council are elected by the General Assembly, giving a total of 15 UN member states. All five permanent members have the power of veto, which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support.^[2]

Current permanent members[]

The following is a table of the current permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Country	Current state representation	Former state representation	Current executive leaders	Current representative
Russia	Russian Federation	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1945–1991)	President: Vladimir Putin Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin	Vasily Nebenzya[3]
China	People's Republic of China	Republic of China[a] (1945–1971)	President: Xi Jinping[b] Premier: Li Keqiang[c]	Zhang Jun[4]
United Kingdom	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	N/A	Monarch: Elizabeth II Prime Minister: Boris Johnson	Barbara Woodward[5]
France	French Republic	Provisional Government of the French Republic (1945–1946)  French Fourth Republic (1946–1958)	President: Emmanuel Macron Prime Minister: Jean Castex	Nicolas de Rivière[6]
United States	United States of America	N/A	President: Joe Biden	Linda Thomas-Greenfield[7]

History[]

The original permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in 1945 (dark blue) with their respective colonies and other holdings shown (pale blue).

Leaders of the five permanent member states at a summit in 2000. Clockwise from front left: Chinese paramount leader Jiang Zemin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French President Jacques Chirac.

At the UN's founding in 1945, the five permanent members of the Security Council were the French Republic, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There have been two seat changes since then, although these have not been reflected in Article 23 of the United Nations Charter, as it has not been accordingly amended:

• China's seat was originally held by the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC). However, it lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949. The Chinese Communist Party won control of mainland China and established the People's Republic of China (PRC). In 1971, UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 recognised the PRC as the legal representative of China in the UN, and gave it the seat on the Security Council that had been held by the ROC, which was expelled from the UN altogether.^[8] Both the ROC and the PRC continue to claim de jure sovereignty over the entirety of China (including Taiwan).^[9][10][11] However, only 15 states continue to officially recognise the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China.
• After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia was recognised as the legal successor state of the Soviet Union and maintained the latter's position on the Security Council.

Additionally, France reformed its provisional government into the French Fourth Republic in 1946 and later into the French Fifth Republic in 1958, both under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle. France maintained its seat as there was no change in its international status or recognition, although many of its overseas possessions eventually became independent.

The five permanent members of the Security Council were the victorious powers in World War II and have maintained the world's most powerful military forces ever since. They annually top the list of countries with the highest military expenditures; in 2011, they spent over US$1 trillion combined on defence, accounting for over 60% of global military expenditures (the U.S. alone accounting for over 40%). They are also five of the world's six largest arms exporters (along with Germany^[12]), and are the only nations officially recognised as "nuclear-weapon states" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), though there are other states known or believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons.

Veto power[]

The "power of veto" refers to the veto power wielded solely by the permanent members, enabling them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft. The veto does not apply to procedural votes, which is significant in that the Security Council's permanent membership can vote against a "procedural" draft resolution, without necessarily blocking its adoption by the council.

The veto is exercised when any permanent member—the so-called "P5"—casts a "negative" vote on a "substantive" draft resolution. Abstention or absence from the vote by a permanent member does not prevent a draft resolution from being adopted.

Expansion[]

The G4 nations: Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan

There have been proposals suggesting the introduction of new permanent members. The candidates usually mentioned are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. They comprise the group of four countries known as the G4 nations, which mutually support one another's bids for permanent seats.^[13]

This sort of reform has traditionally been opposed by the Uniting for Consensus group, which is composed primarily of nations that are regional rivals and economic competitors of the G4. The group is led by Italy and Spain (opposing Germany), Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina (opposing Brazil), Pakistan (opposing India), and South Korea (opposing Japan), in addition to Turkey, Indonesia and others. Since 1992, Italy and other council members have instead proposed semi-permanent seats or expanding the number of temporary seats.^{[citation needed]}

Most of the leading candidates for permanent membership are regularly elected onto the Security Council by their respective groups. Japan was elected for eleven two-year terms, Brazil for ten terms, and Germany for three terms. India has been elected to the council eight times in total, with the most recent successful bid being in 2020.

In 2013, the P5 and G4 members of the UN Security Council accounted for eight of the world's ten largest defence budgets, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Country comparison[]

UNSC Member state	Russian Federation (Russia)	People's Republic of China (China)	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)	French Republic (France)	United States of America (United States)
Coat of arms
Flag
Populations	146,171,015 (2021)	1,411,778,724 (2020)[14]	67,886,004 (2020)[15]	67,427,000 (2021)[16]	331,449,281 (2020)[17]
Area	17,125,242 km2 (6,612,093 sq mi)	9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi)	242,495 km2 (93,628 sq mi)	640,679 km2 (260,558 sq mi)	9,833,520 km2 (3,796,742 sq mi)
Population density	8.4/km² (21.8/sq mi)	145/km² (375.5/sq mi)	270.7/km² (701.1/sq mi)	104.71/km² (40,4/sq mi)	87/km² (33.6/sq mi)
Time zones	11	1	9	12	11
EEZ	7,566,673 km2	877,019 km2	6,805,586 km2	11,691,000 km2	11,351,000 km2
Capital	Moscow	Beijing	London	Paris	Washington, D.C.
Largest cities	Moscow Saint Petersburg Kazan Yekaterinburg Novosibirsk	Shanghai Beijing Chongqing Shenzhen Guangzhou	London Manchester Birmingham Glasgow Edinburgh	Paris Marseille Lyon Nice Toulouse	New York City Los Angeles Chicago Houston Dallas
Continent	Europe/Asia	Asia	Europe North America/South America/Oceania/Africa	Europe North America/South America/Oceania/Africa	North America/Oceania
Government	Federal semi-presidential democratic constitutional republic	Unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic	Unitary parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy	Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic	Federal presidential constitutional republic
Ruling political party	United Russia	Chinese Communist Party	Conservative Party	La République En Marche!	Democratic Party
State leaders	Vladimir Putin Mikhail Mishustin	Xi Jinping[b] Li Keqiang	Queen Elizabeth II Boris Johnson	Emmanuel Macron Jean Castex	Joe Biden Kamala Harris
Official languages	Russian	Standard Chinese[d]	English	French	None at federal level, but English de facto
Economic alliance	BRICS CIS EEU SCO	BRICS SCO	G7 OECD	EU G7 OECD	G7 OECD
Military alliance	CSTO SCO	SCO	NATO	NATO	ANZUS NATO
Subdivisions with highest GDP	Moscow $340 billion (2012)	Guangdong $1.11 trillion (2014)	England $2.69 trillion (2013)	Île-de-France $845 billion (2011)	California $2.28 trillion (2014)
GDP per capita (nominal)	$9,243 (64th)	$8,141 (73rd)	$43,902 (13th)	$37,653 (21st)	$56,084 (6th)
GDP per capita (PPP)	$25,965 (48th)	$14,340 (84th)	$41,499 (25th)	$41,476 (26th)	$56,084 (11th)
GDP (nominal)[18]	$1.178 trillion (2016)[19] (12th)	$11.38 trillion (2016)[20] (2nd)	$2.679 trillion (2015)[21] (5th)	$2.422 trillion (2015)[22] (6th)	$18.558 trillion (2016)[23] (1st)
GDP (PPP)[24]	$3.493 trillion (2016)[25] (6th)	$20.85 trillion (2016)[26] (1st)	$2.849 trillion (2015)[27] (9th)	$2.647 trillion (2015)[28] (10th)	$18.558 trillion (2016)[29] (2nd)
Military expenditures	$65.6 billion (2015)[30] (4th)	$145.8 billion (2015)[31] (2nd)	$56.2 billion (2015)[32] (5th)	$46.8 billion (2015)[33] (7th)	$597.5 billion (2015)[34] (1st)

Military personnel[]

The following list is sourced from the 2018 edition of "The Military Balance" published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

	Country	Active military	Reserve military	Paramilitary	Total	Per 1,000 capita (total)	Per 1,000 capita (active)
	Russian Federation[35][e]	1,013,628	2,572,500	2,310,859	5,896,987	41.5	7.1
	China[36]	2,035,000	510,000	1,500,000	4,045,000	2.9	1.5
	United Kingdom[37]	146,650	44,250	0	190,900	2.9	2.3
	France[38]	202,700	72,300	103,400	378,400	5.6	3
	United States[39]	1,348,400	857,950	0	2,206,350	6.8	4.2

Historical leaders[]

Current leaders of the permanent members[]

The following are the heads of state and government that represent the permanent members of the UN Security Council as of 2021:

• 

  Vladimir Putin
  President of the
  Russian Federation
  since 7 May 2012^[f]

• 

  Joe Biden
  President of the
  United States of America
  since 20 January 2021

• 

  Xi Jinping
  Paramount Leader of the
  People's Republic of China^[b]
  since 15 November 2012^[g]

• 

  Emmanuel Macron
  President of the
  French Republic
  since 14 May 2017

• 

  Boris Johnson
  Prime Minister of the
  United Kingdom
  of Great Britain
  and Northern Ireland
  since 24 July 2019

Notes[]

Footnotes[]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Nico J. Schrijver and Niels M. Blokker (eds.). 2020. Elected Members of the Security Council: Lame Ducks or Key Players? Brill.com.^{[full citation needed]}
• GPF Staff (April 2005). "Security Council Expansion—A Regional Model" (PDF). GlobalPolicy.org. Global Policy Forum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2009. This is referred to by some^[who?] as the "Italian Model".^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• List of country groupings