Erdoğan calls for UN Security Council veto power to be abolished at General Assembly

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the United Nations Security Council's veto power to be abolished, using the opening days of the UN General Assembly in New York to press for a major overhaul of the world body. In a published opinion piece, he argued that the current structure of the Council no longer fits today's crises and should be replaced with a system without permanent seats. Under his proposal, members would be elected by the General Assembly for fixed terms.

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Erdoğan said reform should begin with ending the veto privilege held by the five permanent members of the Council: the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. He argued that adding more permanent members would not solve the deeper problem of decision-making power being concentrated in a small group of states. He said any meaningful reform must start with scrapping the veto and building a broader coalition around the principle that no country should be able to permanently block the will of the majority.

The Turkish president linked his appeal to global crises including pandemics, energy shocks, supply-chain disruptions and regional conflicts. He said these challenges cannot be left to the discretion of a handful of capitals and called for a more effective, fair and accountable system of representation. He also urged the drawing up of a concrete roadmap for reform through the General Assembly, where he said a wider understanding of responsibility could be built.

The intervention matters because the Security Council remains the UN's most powerful body, with authority over sanctions, peacekeeping mandates and the use of force. Its structure has long been criticised by states that say it reflects the balance of power that emerged after World War II rather than today's geopolitical realities. Erdoğan's remarks place Turkey among the countries pressing for a more representative UN system, even though such reform has repeatedly faced resistance from the permanent members.

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Erdoğan has raised the same theme before. At the UN's 74th General Assembly in 2019, he said: "The world is bigger than five. The time has long since come to change our mindset, our institutions and our rules." In New York this week, he also met representatives of the US business community and said Turkey wanted to strengthen cooperation with the United States in defence, energy and trade.

That wider diplomatic and economic engagement formed the backdrop to his UN message. What remains unclear is whether Erdoğan's proposal will gain traction beyond rhetorical support from reform-minded states. Any change to the Security Council's structure would require broad agreement among UN members, including the permanent five.

For now, the immediate question is whether Turkey can help assemble the coalition Erdoğan called for and whether the General Assembly debate will produce any concrete reform roadmap.

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