Is China’s growing clout behind US seeking two UNSC seats for Africa?

The US move to support the creation of two permanent seats for African states in the UN Security Council to reflect the realities of the times is more of an effort to counter China than anything else, a former African diplomat says.

Besides the two seats for African nations, the US has also proposed another seat for small island developing states.

One of the most powerful organs of the UN – at least theoretically – the UNSC is charged with ensuring international peace and security, and has powers to impose sanctions and arms embargoes.

It can also authorise the use of force, and its decisions are binding on all member states.

The US move came days after China hosted one of the biggest China-Africa conclaves in Beijing, which was also attended by UN chief Antonio Guterres.

“The main reason for the change in the US stance on the question of African representation at the UNSC seems [to be] a desire to counter China’s and, to a certain extent, Russia’s growing engagement and influence in Africa,” Andebrhan Welde Giorgis, former ambassador of Eritrea to Belgium, France and the UK, tells TRT World.

China is currently the biggest economic and trading partner of the African continent.

Beijing is also Africa’s largest bilateral creditor as developing economies across the continent become increasingly reliant on Chinese financing to meet their infrastructure and energy needs.

More than 50 African countries turned up in Beijing earlier this week to take part in a major China-Africa summit.

To bolster its position as a rising global power equal to that of the US, Chinese President Xi Jinping also pledged $50 billion in financial support for the continent while vowing to rally their populations together to become a “powerful force”.

China’s outsized influence in Africa in recent years should be seen against the backdrop of “an intensifying great power rivalry”, says Giorgis, now the president of the rights group Eri-Platform in Eritrea, a Horn of Africa country on the Red Sea coast.

Analysts say the US also wants to repair ties with Africa where many are unhappy about Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,000 people since October 7.

News agency Reuters reviewed the prepared remarks that US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield is expected to deliver on Thursday. It reported the US will formally announce its support for moving to negotiations on a draft text to amend the UN Charter to expand the UNSC.

Fifty-four of the 193 UN members are African states.

The UNSC had 11 members when the UN was founded in 1945. The number increased in 1965 to 15 members. It consists of 10 elected states that serve two-year terms in addition to the five permanent members—Russia, China, France, the US and Britain—that also enjoy the veto power.

The US envoy has said Washington does not support expanding veto power beyond the five countries that currently hold it.

This is a point of contention as the African Union believes “full representation of Africa in the Security Council” means no fewer than two permanent seats with all the prerogatives… “including the right of veto”.

Giorgis says non-veto membership of two African countries in the UNSC will have “barely nominal or marginal significance”.

The non-veto status of the proposed African membership of the UNSC will be no different than that of the 10 non-permanent members, which are unable to make any “real impact” on vital issues of war and peace, he says.

“Pending basic reform of the UNSC, Africa should push for veto status,” Giorgis adds.

Based on their population base, economic power and internal stability, major contenders for the two proposed permanent UNSC seats are Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, he says.

“What’s needed is a comprehensive reform of the structure, functions and operations of the UN in general and the UNSC in particular to align them with the prevailing global reality that has evolved since 1945,” he says.