Five countries elected to UNSC as non-permanent members

Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland will replace India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Norway at the horse-shoe table from January 1 next year.

New Delhi: Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland were elected to the UN Security Council as non-permanent members for the 2023-2024 term and will replace India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Norway at the horse-shoe table from January 1 next year. The 193-member UN General Assembly held elections on Thursday to elect the five non-permanent members for the two-year term 2023-24.

For two seats in Western Europe and other States category, Switzerland (187 votes) and Malta (185 votes) were elected, for two seats in African and Asia-Pacific States Mozambique (192 votes) and Japan (184 votes) were elected, and the one seat in the Latin American and Caribbean States category, Ecuador was elected with 190 votes.

India’s Permanent Mission to the UN congratulated the newly-elected members and wished “them the best for a fruitful and productive tenure.” Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland will join Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the UAE as well as the five permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US as UNSC members for the year 2023.

India’s two-year term at the UNSC as a non-permanent member will end in December 2022, when it was also holding the Presidency of the powerful UN organ. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the 15-nation Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st century.

On the issue of "categories of membership", the G4 nations of Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan have said that only when the permanent seats are expanded, can the decisions of the Council reflect the interests of the broader membership