Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said today, on Monday, that Moscow is directly opposed to an increase in the number of members of the UN Security Council.

In an interview, Polyanskiy described how "We emphasize that any reform of the Security Council should receive the broadest possible approval and lead to a more balanced composition of the Security Council,” before adding that "We speak out directly against the increase in the UN Security Council members belonging to the "collective West", of which there are already enough - to then include Germany and Japan.”

Постпред России при ООН Дмитрий Полянский не одобряет увеличение Совета Безопасности за счет "коллективного Запада". Оптимальным числом членов он называет "20 с небольшим" странhttps://t.co/3kn3SUKveN pic.twitter.com/Z53ncIDlUU

— РИА Новости (@rianru) July 5, 2021

He stressed the need to achieve balance in the composition of the UN Security Council, saying that there should be talks about increasing the participation of developing countries in it.

Polyanskiy noted that the ideal number of council members is 20 countries or more.

He said, "Our approach to reform does not mean an automatic expansion of the Council, according to the principle of 50 rather than 15 representation," stressing that "the Security Council must remain a fully-functional and manageable body."

According to Polyanskiy, "Achieving a unanimous stance in the Council in its current state requires many hours of work." He pointed out that "if its strength is greatly expanded, the problems of coordination will increase. Therefore, we consider the optimal number to be 20 countries or a little more."