United Nations Security Council chamber at UN world headquarters in New York City

By Gary Raynaldo       DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK –  NORWAY, IRELAND, INDIA, MEXICO were elected non-permanent seats on the powerful UN Security Council Wednesday. The UN General Assembly held elections for five new members to the Security Council for 2021-2022.  However, in the African Group, although  Kenya came out on top,  the Kenyan votes were  less than the 128 required to win the seat.  Kenya garnered 113 and Djibouti 78 votes, and will have a run-off on Thursday.   The new Security Council  candidates were Canada, Ireland, and Norway, competing for two seats in the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG); Djibouti and Kenya competing for one seat in the African Group; India running uncontested in the Asia-Pacific Group; and Mexico running uncontested in the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC).  The voting was held  in a manner resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic which compelled the closure of the UN headquarters in mid-March. According to the General Assembly decision adopted on 29 May, member cast ballots during designated time slots at the General Assembly Hall due to limitations on large gatherings at the UN due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The five new member country seats  will replace Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa, whose terms expire at the end of the year.   There are 10 non-permanent members on the UNSC, elected for two-year terms and staggered into two groups, in other words every year five seats are rotated. Estonia was elected on June 7 last year, along with Niger, Tunisia, Vietnam and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The five permanent UNSC members are China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.

NORWAY: “Multilateralism is at the heart of Norway’s foreign policy, as well as in our campaign”

Credit:   norway.no/en/missions/     Mona Juul,   Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations

Norway’s candidature for a seat in the Security Council was motivated by the country’s desire to defend the multilateral system and the rules-based multilateral order.  COVID-19 has been placed in the global spotlight this  year.    “But the consistency in our foreign policy, development cooperation and commitment to the UN are the same. Global health has been a priority for Norway for the past two decades, ” Norway ambassador Juul said. “Norway’s response to the crisis illustrates this.  As a founding member and major donor to CEPI, Norway has just committed 200 million dollars to the search for a Covid-19 vaccine. ”  The ambassador said a vaccine It should be available to everyone and rapidly and fairly distributed, including to vulnerable groups and low-income countries. “We have also increased our support to the WHO and the UN Humanitarian Response. And we have taken the initiative to a new UN fund that will assist countries in recovering from this crisis as well as focus on the long-term development perspective. This shows what kind of UN member state Norway is, has been, and will continue to be as a member of the Security Council. Global solidarity is our only option.”

Ireland wins seat on United Nations Security Council

On Ireland’s winning bid for a seat on the UN Security Council, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney says the world has been threatened by a virus that knows no nationality. 'The only thing we have is shared knowledge', he says. | Read more: https://t.co/4p36Kic6UE pic.twitter.com/sdC5CEm9jN

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 17, 2020

INDIA Elected  Seat on UN Security Council

Congrats for your good work Team @IndiaUNNewYork and #TeamMEA https://t.co/dDThEFKCN9

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) June 18, 2020