Turkiye calls for UN Security Council veto to end: Could it happen?

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a fundamental overhaul of the United Nations Security Council, urging that permanent membership be ended and the veto power held by the five permanent members be abolished. Delivering his argument in a Bloomberg article published on September 22 and reiterating it while speaking to journalists in New York, Erdogan said the current arrangement—designed eight decades ago—no longer reflects the modern international order and allows a handful of capitals to block the will of the broader UN membership. A formal end to the veto would require amending the UN Charter under Article 108. That process demands approval by two-thirds of the UN General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of UN member states, including ratification by all five permanent Security Council members. In practical terms, that means each P5 state would have to agree to give up its own veto—an outcome many analysts and diplomats regard as improbable. There have been narrower proposals to limit veto use. Since 2015 France and Mexico have promoted a voluntary pledge by the P5 to refrain from vetoing resolutions addressing mass atrocities such as genocide and crimes against humanity. The initiative has attracted renewed support recently: 21 states in the last four months, including the UK, have backed it and the French government says 128 member states now support the proposal, one state short of the number needed to adopt a non-binding General Assembly resolution. Advocates view such voluntary commitments as a way to increase pressure on veto-wielding members in emergency situations, but the measures would not be legally binding. Observers say full abolition is unlikely because the P5 have historically defended their privileges. Russia has explicitly said it believes permanent members should retain veto power while expressing openness to expanding permanent seats. The United States and China have also previously defended their veto rights. Expansion of the Security Council to include new permanent members has found some backing from several P5 states, but that path too would require a UN Charter amendment and agreement among the P5 about which countries would receive seats and whether they would be granted vetoes. Historical veto use underscores the stakes: out of 331 recorded vetoes, Russia or the Soviet Union cast 163 and the United States cast 95, illustrating how entrenched veto influence has been in Security Council decision-making.