Brazil should be a member of the UN Security Council: UK chief diplomat

Brazil must have a "louder voice" in international affairs, including a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, said the United Kingdom's top diplomat on Wednesday.

The "global balance of power" has shifted southward, said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at a news conference in Brasilia during the first visit by a senior British diplomat in nine years.

He added, "This reality must be reflected in a variety of multilateral institutions, including the United Nations."

Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America and the most populous country in the region, has demanded for years to join the council as a permanent member, but the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France have blocked the move.

Cleverly stated that the South American nation "has a crucial role to play in reshaping the international order and the multilateral system, and the United Kingdom reaffirms its support for Brazil's ambition to attain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council."

The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, stated that Brazil and the United Kingdom were in agreement on this matter.

Cleverly's visit to Brazil, which concludes a regional tour that also took him to Chile, Jamaica, and Colombia, follows the announcement by the British government of a substantial contribution to a Brazilian fund for the protection of the Amazon.

On the eve of King Charles III's coronation, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged more than $100 million to the fund this month during a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.