India, Mexico, Norway, Ireland and Kenya join the polarized United Nations Security Council

Five new countries – India, Mexico, Norway, Ireland and Kenya – formally joined the UN Security Council on Monday at a time of growing polarization in the body charged with maintaining world peace and security.

They participated in a first meeting aimed at approving an agenda proposed by the current president of the council, Tunisia.

The new countries will hold non-permanent seats on the 15-member council for two years.

The permanent members (the United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain) have veto power.

Divisions within the council have sharpened in recent years as the United States under President Donald Trump took a one-sided approach to diplomacy.

While the veto power of any of the permanent members was used 10 times or less between 1990 and 2000, it was used 31 times between 2010 and 2019, and five times last year alone, according to SC Procedure, a specialized news outlet. .

The Security Council is active in many conflict and crisis zones around the world, mainly through more than a dozen peacekeeping operations involving some 100,000 soldiers from UN member states.