Membership Full member Ambassador François Delattre | UNSC seat Permanent | |
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Since 1945 (1945) (as Provisional Republic)
1946 (as Fourth Republic
1958 (as Fifth Republic) | ||
The French Republic is a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The nation originally joined the UN as the Provisional Government of the French Republic (PGFR) before being succeeded by the French Fourth Republic in 1946, however, after a series of crises, the French Fourth Republic collapsed. A constitutional referendum was held on 28 September 1958; 82.6% voted for constitution for the French Fifth Republic written by Charles de Gaulle. The French Fifth Republic succeeded the seat of the former Fourth Republic, including its permanent membership on the Security Council in the United Nations.
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Veto power in the UN Security Council
France has used its veto power sparingly, vetoing 18 resolutions from 1949 to 2007, compared with 82 by the United States and 123 by the Soviet Union and Russia, 32 by Britain, and 6 by China. France used its veto power along with the United Kingdom, to veto a resolution to resolve the Suez Crisis in 1956. France also used a veto in 1976 on the question of the Comoros independence, when the island of Mayotte was kept in French territory due to the vote of the local population. In 2002, France threatened to veto Resolution 1441 on the then upcoming 2003 Iraq war.
List of all French vetoes