Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Monday called for reforms within the United Nations Security Council, saying that the body has been unable to maintain global peace and security, PTI reported.

“Unless the United Nations, particularly the UNSC, is reformed, the global body’s role in maintaining peace and security will be limited due to lack of representation,” Shringla said.

Shringla made the remarks while speaking at an event organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

The security council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. It has five permanent members, including China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, and ten non-permanent members such as India. The permanent members have the power to veto any substantive resolution.

India has repeatedly pushed for permanent membership of the council.

Shringla on Monday said that a deadlock had surfaced in the security council regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The issue had to be taken to the United Nations General Assembly,” Shringla said, according to PTI.

Shringla was referring to the February 25 deadlock when Russia had vetoed a draft resolution about its invasion of Ukraine. By doing so, Russia had effectively blocked international action on the conflict.

Shringla also said that sanctions imposed by western countries on Russia will impact India’s trade with Moscow. He, however, did not elaborate further.

Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have imposed sanctions on Moscow because of its offensive against Ukraine. Some of these measures target Russian state-owned banks and restrict the country’s ability to carry out transactions in major currencies, making it difficult for Moscow to trade with other countries.

India and Russia have been discussing alternative payment mechanisms in the context of Moscow’s reduced ability to carry out trade in dollars on account of international sanctions. Such a payment mechanism could eliminate the need to settle trade transactions between India and Russia through dollars or euros.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, in what it called a “special operation” to demilitarise and “de-Nazify” its neighbouring country. Ukraine and Western allies have said that this is a baseless pretext for a war of choice.

There have been 4,890 civilian casualties in Ukraine till April 17, according to the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner.