Burkina-Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Vietnam were elected non-permanent members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday for two years beginning Jan. 1.
Five non-permanent seats on the 15-member Security Council were up for grabs.
Burkina-Faso, Libya and Vietnam, which had the support of their respective regional groups, were elected by secret ballot in the first round of voting by the 192-member General Assembly to succeed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Qatar.
Libyan UN Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi hailed his country's election.
"I think for us it has a very important meaning, being elected to the Security Council by a very high score," he said. "It means we are back in the international community. All the problems we have faced in the past are now behind us."
Libya had long been considered an international pariah after it was censured by the Security Council for its refusal to surrender Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
But earlier this month Washington said it would not campaigning against Libya's bid to join the council, in what was seen as another move to end the oil-rich north African state's diplomatic isolation.
In May last year, Washington renewed diplomatic ties with Libya, ending a 25-year-old diplomatic battle with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and taking the country off the US list of states accused of supporting terrorism.
The move followed Qaddafi's announcement that he was renouncing a weapons of mass destruction program.
US deputy ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff said his delegation looked forward "to working with all new members that are elected."
"On a personal note, I noticed there were family members of the Pan Am 103 tragedy and I know others were watching," Wolff said. "Their presence was felt here today. I felt it like no other delegation."
Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmmed al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 by a trio of Scottish judges sitting in a special court in the Netherlands of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 by means of a bomb smuggled on board in a suitcase. He was sentenced to 27 years in jail.
"I'm glad we got elected in the first round," Vietnamese UN Ambassador Le Luong Minh said. "That reflects the trust of member states in our ability and responsibility to fulfill our obligations. We will be a responsible member of the United Nations and of the council."
Burkina Faso received 185 out of 190 valid ballots cast, Vietnam 183 and Libya 178.
Costa Rica and Croatia were elected in their respective groups after their respective opponents -- the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic -- withdrew in the third round following two earlier inconclusive rounds of balloting.
The Security Council is made up of five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- and 10 non-permanent members, elected every year by groups of five for two-year mandates that cannot be immediately renewed.
Non-permanent members South Africa, Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and Panama will stay on the council until the end of next year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing