India elected to UNSC as non-permanent member Betwa Sharma

UNSC-INDIA

United Nations, Oct 12 (PTI) After a gap of 19 years,
India was Tuesday elected as a non-permanent member of the UN
Security Council, a position which would help it push more
aggressively for the reform of the world body's top organ.
India secured an emphatic win, with 187 of the 191 member
states in the General Assembly backing its candidature and one
member state abstaining from the vote.
India, which is a founding member of the UN, has been on
the Council six times earlier, but not since 1992.
In 1996, India lost to Japan by a huge margin of 100
votes. This time, however, it is taking over the Asia seat
from Japan, being the sole candidate from the region in the
race as Kazakhstan pulled out earlier this year.
In the run-up to the vote, External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna, who was in New York for 10 days last month, met
leaders of a record 56 countries on the margins of the UN
General Assembly's annual session.
"We have worked hard... we have pushed for every single
vote," India's envoy to the UN, Hardeep Singh Puri, told PTI.
In February, India's candidature was endorsed by the
Asian Group but it still had to get support of 128 countries,
two-thirds of the 192 members of the UN General Assembly.
Other "clean slate" candidates included South Africa that
got the Africa seat replacing Uganda with the vote of 182
members in its favour, and Colombia, which secured the seat
for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States,
replacing Mexico.
The elected members take their spots on January 1, 2011
and will serve for two years.
South Africa has returned to the Council after a break of
two years when it had served its first term from 2007-2008.
Colombia, like India, has previously served six terms.
The five new countries will be replacing Austria, Japan,
Mexico, Turkey and Uganda. The two seats for Western Europe
and Others Group were fought for by Canada, Germany and
Portugal.
India, which is among the three largest troop
contributing countries to the UN, has already highlighted the
significance of all the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India
and China) being on the Council together, which could present
a united front on several contentious international issues.
It has also underlined that the IBSA (India, Brazil and
South Africa) will also be on the Council together.
New Delhi, which is seeking expansion in both the
permanent and non-permanent categories of the UN Security
Council as part of its reform, is hoping that change comes in
the next two years while it is already in the Council. PTI BS

MHM


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