Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia are set to get seats on the UN Security Council
UNITED NATIONS — Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia were expected to gain seats on the UN Security Council through a secret vote in the General Assembly on Thursday.
The world body, which has 193 members, is expected to elect five countries to serve two-year terms on the council. The 10 non-permanent seats on the 15-member council are allocated to regional groups that usually select their candidates but sometimes cannot agree on them. This year there are no such surprises.
Last year Slovenia was convincingly defeated Russia’s close ally Belarus for the seat representing the Eastern European Regional Group, a vote that reflected strong global opposition to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This time, the regional groups have nominated Somalia as the seat in Africa, Pakistan as the seat in Asia and the Pacific, Panama as the seat in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Denmark and Greece as two mainly Western seats.
The five council members elected on Thursday will begin their terms on January 1 and replace the members whose two-year terms expire on December 31: Mozambique, Japan, Ecuador, Malta and Switzerland.
They will join the five permanent members with veto powers – the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France – and the five countries elected last year – Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security. But Russia’s veto prevents it from taking action against Ukraine — and close U.S. ties to Israel mean it has not called for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
All five countries expected to win seats on Thursday have previously served on the Security Council: Pakistan seven times, Panama five times, Denmark four times, Greece twice and Somalia once.
Nearly every country agrees that this is the case nearly eight decades after the founding of the United Nations the Security Council must expand and reflect the world of the 21st century, and not the post-World War II era that is now reflected.
But with 193 countries with national interests, the central question – and the biggest disagreement – is exactly how. And for forty years, these disagreements have blocked any major reform of the UN’s most powerful body.