U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said he would not support Japan's proposal to raise the number of seats on the U.N. Security Council to 21.
Bolton told the Asahi Shimbun, in an interview published Thursday, that 19 or 20 seats would be the limit of any possible expansion, with "two or so permanent, and then two to three non-permanent members."
"Ideally, one alternative is that just Japan joins the Security Council. But that is an option that ... has not been widely accepted," Bolton said.
"We have not yet found another model which satisfies our need not to have a huge expansion of the council, but that also satisfies Japan's desire to get a permanent seat," he said.
After the General Assembly rejected the four-party proposal submitted by Japan, Germany, India and Brazil, Japan put forth a new proposal earlier this year to increase the number of Security Council seats to 21.
"Four separate times, there has been a discussion about changing the composition of the Security Council, and four separate times, it has failed," Bolton said.
"By this time, people should realize that there is no easy way to do this," he said.
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