The new five non-permanent council members will replace Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda on 31st Dec. The five members elected last year – Bosnia, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria will remain on the council until the end of 2011.
India wins berth at UN Security Council
India wins berth at UN Security Council | | | Indian Express
WASHINGTON: India on Tuesday was formally and handily elected to a non-permanent seat of the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term, beginning January 2011. It secured 187 of the 191 votes.
But India’s election was a foregone conclusion, with the only other aspirant in the Asian grouping, Kazakhstan, having pulled out of the race in January, 2010, and with no other Asian nation throwing its hat into the ring subsequently.
The Indian diplomats, however, left nothing to chance and kept lobbying till about the very end. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna himself led the effort, meeting a large number of delegation heads during his recent visit for the UN General Assembly session.
With this victory, India will occupy the UNSC after a gap of 18 years.
It last held the non-permanent seat of the most powerful UN organ in 1992. Apart from India, countries elected from the other regions include Germany, South Africa and Colombia.
Canada and Portugal were vying for one remaining seat from the Western Europe and Others category, with the voting having spilled over to a second round.
Each non-permanent country has a two-year tenure, without a veto power. The five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- alone have the right to veto any council resolution.
Interestingly, all three members of IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa Forum) aspiring for permanent berths in an expanded UNSC, will all be together as non-permanent members. So is the case with three of the four G-4 nations (India, Brazil, Germany and Japan). Japan is set to complete its two-year non-permanent tenure in December. India will in fact succeed Japan in the council.