Putin calls for summit of UN Security Council permanent members

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for a summit in 2020 of leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to "defend peace" in the face of global instability.

Speaking in Jerusalem at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Putin said the world must remember that "disunity in the face of threats can lead to frightening consequences."

Countries must "do everything to protect and defend peace," he said.

"The founder countries of the United Nations, the five states that hold special responsibility to save civilisation, can and must be an example," he said, calling for a meeting "in any place in the world" of the leaders of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain.

Such a meeting would "play a great role in searching for collective answers to modern challenges and threats," Putin said.

Putin is one of dozens of world leaders in Jerusalem to mark the liberation 75 years ago of the World War II death camp where the Nazis killed more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews.