ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — French President Emmanuel Macron closed his three-nation Africa tour on Wednesday with a focus on reshaping the United Nations’ top security body to include the continent’s 1.4 billion people. In meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Macron pressed for permanent African seats — a demand he had aired earlier at a summit in Nairobi.
A readout from the Addis Ababa talks said the leaders “recognized the need for African representation” on the Security Council. The closed-door session, held at the tail end of Macron’s visits to Egypt and Kenya, gave the French president a platform to align with a reform campaign that African diplomats have pursued for decades.
Guterres delivered one of his bluntest assessments of the Council’s structure. “A Security Council that today does not represent geographically the realities of the world. We have three European permanent members, one North American and one Asian. No Latin American, no African is obviously a Security Council that has a problem of legitimacy, and that brings with it a problem of effectiveness,” he said.
The Secretary-General’s remarks echoed a declaration released at the Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted by France and Kenya, which called for “the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the U.N. Security Council to make it more effective and representative.” The summit, held in an English-speaking African country for the first time, served as the backdrop for Macron’s announcement that French public and private investors would mobilize $27 billion to spur inclusive growth across the continent.
While the UN reform push anchored the diplomatic leg of the trip, the Macron-Abiy meeting also produced a concrete financial agreement: a $63.9 million loan from France to Ethiopia for green energy investment and a digitalization program. The loan, alongside the broader investment pledge, underscored France’s effort to deepen economic ties with a continent where China and Russia have expanded influence.
Africa’s quest for permanent Security Council representation has centered on the argument that the post-World War II power arrangement — frozen in 1945 — excludes the world’s fastest-growing region from permanent decision-making. The renewed endorsement from Macron, a leader of a nuclear-armed permanent member, and from Guterres, the U.N.’s top official, adds weight to a push that has historically stalled amid great-power reluctance.