Türkiye's Communications Directorate on Thursday held a panel discussion focussing on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reforms in Tokyo.

During the discussions, a panel of academics and scholars stressed that Security Council is in urgent need of reform to safeguard international security and peace, provide solutions to global conflicts and save lives. Organized by Türkiye's Directorate of Communications and titled "United Nations Security Council Reform: A New Approach to Reconstructing the International Order," the conference heard speeches from various senior scholars and academics well-versed in international relations who all see the need for the reform of global governance.

The panel was moderated by Buğra Kanat, the Washington director of the Ankara-based Political, Economic and Social Research Foundation (SETA), and attended by panelists, including Takahiro Shinyo, Japan's former ambassador to the U.N. and Germany, professors Toshiya Hoshino from Osaka School of International Public Policy, and Gonca Oğuz Gök from a Turkish university.

The session began with a video message from Türkiye's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun.

Highlighting the critical need for the reform of the structure of the Security Council, Altun said the U.N., established for the preservation of peace and security, no longer meets the expectations of the international community.

"A new U.N. should be designed to protect international peace and security more effectively," Altun said, adding: "A multicultural U.N. is needed to ensure a just and more sustainable global peace."

Shinyo said: "The Security Council is experiencing a credibility crisis and that the aim of the UNSC reform would be to change the structure of the Council," according to a press release issued by the Turkish Communications Directorate.

"We should not increase the number of permanent members; five permanent members are enough in the Council," he said.

Referring to the idea of giving "non-permanent UNSC members a status akin to semi-permanent members by extending their terms of office," he said the permanent members of the Security Council might also change in the long run.

Altun added that more concrete steps should be taken on the topic of reform, which has been discussed for 30 years.

Toshiya, for his part, said the necessity for the reform of the council is "undisputed," but "the issue has lost momentum."

On her part, Gök said procedural reforms would not successfully resolve this crisis and that the U.N. reform process may acquire momentum through multilateral initiatives spearheaded by rising middle-power nations.

In addition, it has been argued that the council exists to safeguard the interests of powerful individual states who maintain sway and influence due to their highly advanced economies and their possession of nuclear arsenals, rather than protecting the interests of the international community and global security

The hypocrisy and double standards of the U.N. have been repeatedly pointed out, with many comparing the hyped-up international reaction to Russia's attack on Ukraine to the silence and neglect in the wake of non-European conflicts and atrocities such as the indiscriminate attacks by Israeli forces on the occupied Gaza Strip. The panelists blamed this on the imbalance of power in the Security Council.

Türkiye has been at the forefront in calling for such changes. These include introducing term limits to the membership of the five permanent members of the council, just like non-permanent members, and removing their veto power, which has prevented the U.N. from carrying out much-needed assistance throughout the world.