Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday blasted the United Nations Security Council, claiming it needs to be expanded and that "the world is bigger than five."

The Security Council is composed of 15 member nations. There are five permanent members: the U.S., U.K., China, France, and Russia, along with 10 nonpermanent members who are elected to two-year terms by the General Assembly. 

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"The institutions established after the Second World War no longer reflect today's world," Erdogan said during a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. "The Security Council has ceased to be the guarantor for world security and has become the battleground for political strategies of only five countries. We consider the recent events taking place in Cyprus as a manifestation of this hollowed out institutional structure that doesn't inspire justice and trust anymore."

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has been quietly consulting with diplomats from the U.N.'s 193 member states to see if there is a desire to add six permanent seats on the powerful council, though the newcomers would not have veto power. The push to expand the U.N. Security Council is part of President Joe Biden's agenda to acknowledge contributions from developing countries and give them more of a say on the international stage. Having more members would also blunt China's global power grab and allow other countries to weigh in on conflicts, specifically the war in Ukraine.

Erdogan also pledged to do everything he could to keep the lines of communication open between Ukraine and Russia as the war hits the 19-month mark.

“Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, we have been endeavoring to keep both our Russian and Ukrainian friends around the table with the thesis that war will have no winners and peace will have no losers,” he said. “We will step up our efforts to end the war through diplomacy and dialogue on the basis of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity.”

In his speech, Erdogan also called out Western countries over bigoted attacks on Islam that he said had reached "unbearable" levels.

Developing countries are "suffering from racism along with xenophobia and Islamophobia as if it were a plague," he added.

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In the past several months, Erdogan has called out Sweden, which has welcomed activists that Turkey views as terrorists and has looked the other way when they burned the Koran. Swedish officials have maintained that book burning is a protected freedom.

"Unfortunately, populist politicians in many countries continue to play with fire by encouraging such dangerous trends," he said.