President Nikos Christodoulides on Friday called for India to become a permanent member of the United Nations security council, following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the latter’s official residence, the Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

“I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate that Cyprus also supports India’s growing global role, including its rightful place in a reformed United Nations security council, because global governance must reflect today’s realities,” he said during a joint press conference.

He added that during their discussions, he and Modi had “discussed broader regional and international developments, reaffirming our shared commitment to international law, the United Nations charter, and effective multilateralism – principles that matter today more than ever before.

“It is in this context that I wish to sincerely thank you, prime minister. Cyprus and the Cypriot people deeply value India’s longstanding efforts to reunify Cyprus, and for your steadfast support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus,” he said.

Since its creation in 1948, the UN security council has had five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – while ten non-permanent members take seats at the security council for two-year terms. This number rose from an initial six in 1966.

India has served eight separate terms as a non-permanent member, first doing so between 1951 and 1952, and most recently in 2021 and 2022.

Calls for the security council’s constitution to be altered have been made from various parts of the world in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan having said during his address to the UN general assembly in 2013 that “the world is bigger than five”, and having repeatedly used the phrase in reference to the security council ever since.

India, meanwhile, is one of the G4 nations, a group which also comprises Brazil, Germany, and Japan, all of which support each other’s attempts to gain permanent seats.

For India or any country to gain a permanent seat at the security council, it would require a two-thirds majority vote at both the general assembly, including positive votes from all five current permanent members of the security council.