UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan hopes to enter the UN Security Council as a
non-permanent member, a club of 10 nations which currently includes
India, when the United Nations holds annual elections to its powerful
15-nation body on today (Friday).
Pakistan is one of the nine
countries vying for five non-permanent seats on the Security Council
that will fall vacant on December 31, 2011.
The candidates
include Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo (from the
African and Asia-Pacific States); Azerbaijan, Hungary and Slovenia (from
the Eastern European States); and Guatemala (from the Latin American
and Caribbean States), Director of the General Assembly and Economic and
Social Council Affairs Division Ion Botnaru told reporters today.
India joined as non-permanent member of the UNSC on January 2011 and its term will end on December 31, 2012.
The two nuclear-armed neighbours have thrice before been together in the Council in 1968, 1977 and 1984.
Both the Indian and Pakistani missions to the UN did not have any comment on the elections.
India’s
Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri and Pakistan’s
Ambassador Abdullah Haroon share cordial relations. The two envoys from
the rival nations famously sat together in the US Open stands last year
supporting the doubles team of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.
China
has backed Pakistan’s bid for non-permanent berth in the Security
Council, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying Beijing
attaches great importance to Pakistan’s request for a seat on the
Council and is in favour of Islamabad playing a bigger role in
maintaining international peace and security.
Pakistan’s Foreign
Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, during her address to the UN General
Assembly last month, had sought support for her country’s election to
the Council. "At this session of the General Assembly, Pakistan is
seeking election to a seat on the Security Council. In soliciting your
support, I wish to assure you that we would discharge our
responsibilities with utmost dedication to the high ideals and
principles of the United Nations," she had said.
The countries whose terms are expiring this year are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria.
The new five non-permanent members will serve their terms from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013.
The
elections are held on the basis of regional ballots, with Pakistan and
Kyrgyzstan vying for a single seat available to the Asia-Pacific group.
A UN member state since 1947, Pakistan has previously served six
terms on the council while Kyrgyzstan has never been on the council.
The four temporary members that will remain through 2012 besides India are Colombia, Germany, Portugal and South Africa.
There
are five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council — the
United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – and 10 temporary
elected members without vetoes. Online
