India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term. India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-Pacific States, won 184 votes out of the 192 ballots cast in the elections for the five non-permanent seats of the Security Council, reported a news agency, Press Trust of India.
India’s two-year term as the non-permanent member of the UNSC would begin from 1 January 2021. Along with India, Ireland, Mexico, and Norway also won the Security Council elections held on Wednesday.
Apart from the Security Council elections, the General Assembly voted to elect veteran Turkish diplomat and parliamentarian Volkan Bozkir as the President of the next session of the UN General Assembly.
In 2021, India, Norway, Ireland and Mexico will sit in the most powerful UN organ along with five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US as well as non-permanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam. This is the eighth time that India will sit at the UN high-table.
Immediately after the results were announced, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said in a video statement that he is truly delighted that India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2021-22.
“We have received overwhelming support and I’m deeply humbled by the tremendous confidence, which the member states of the United Nations have reposed in India,” he said.
He said that the outcome is a reflection” of the strong campaign led by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and also thanked Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla as well as his predecessor Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin. (Inputs from PTI)
