India expects to cruise through as the 193- member United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) votes on Wednesday for contenders to 5 non-permanent seats at the UN Security Council for 2021-22 India is standing unopposed as the nominee for the Asia-Pacific seat, and requires two-thirds of UNGA members, or 129 votes, to be verified. Mexico is also unopposed in its bid for the Latin American and Caribbean seat, while there is a straight contest in between Kenya and late entrant Djibouti for the African seat.
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All eyes are, nevertheless on the contest between Canada, Ireland and Norway, who are contending for the 2 seats allocated to the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), with each making a pitch for India’s vote, including a late night call on Tuesday from Canadian PM Trudeau to PM Modi. The 2 leaders had actually spoken last as just recently as on April29
‘ Not contented’
On Friday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide held a videoconference with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Eliciting elect the UNSC was “one of the topics gone over” said Norwegian Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund. “We depend on support from a number of friendly nations. We are positive, but not complacent of securi