India's candidature for a non-permanent seat at the powerful United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term has been unanimously endorsed by 55 Asia-Pacific countries.
The announcement of the support was made on Wednesday morning by Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN.
"A unanimous step. Asia-Pacific Group @UN unanimously endorses India's candidature for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council for a 2-year term in 2021/22. Thanks to all 55 members for their support," Akbaruddin tweeted.
A video message accompanying Akbaruddi's tweet said "Asia-Pacific Group endorses India for Non-Permanent Seat of United Nations Security Council. 55 countries, 1 nominee – India for a non-permanent seat of UN Security Council Term 2021-2022."
The video message thanked all the countries in the Asia Pacific group for endorsing India's candidature.
Among the 55 countries supporting India's candidature are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Vietnam.
Each year the 193-member General Assembly elects five non-permanent members for a two-year term at the UN high-table. The five permanent members of the Council are China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US.
The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis: five for African and Asian States; one for the Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States.
India has been a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on seven occasions in the past several decades.
On previous occasions when India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council were in 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992 and in 2011-2012 under the leadership of former Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri.
It may be mentioned here that elections for five non-permanent members of the 15-nation Council for the 2021-22 term will be held around June next year.
