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Ukraine, Egypt, Senegal, Uruguay, Japan elected UN Security Council members for 2016-2017

According to Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, the election of Ukraine and other four countries as non-permanent members of the UN SC was predictable in conditions of uncontested vote

UNITED NATIONS, October 15. /TASS/. Ukraine, Egypt, Senegal, Uruguay and Japan were on Thursday elected non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for 2016-2017.

During the vote that took place in the General Assembly, they all secured the support of the required two-thirds of the delegations from 193 countries present in the hall.

Egypt gained 179 votes, Senegal — 187, Uruguay — 185, Japan — 184. Ukraine got the smallest number of votes - 177.

On January 1, the five countries will replace in the UN Security Council Chad, Nigeria, Lithuania, Chile and Jordan, whose two-year-term will come to an end, and will join Angola, Venezuela, Spain, Malaysia and New Zealand, whose powers end in late 2016.

The UN Security Council is a key body of the UN, which, in line with the organization’s Charter should maintain peace and international security. The Security Council consists of 15 members. Five countries are represented in it on a permanent basis (Russia, China, the UK, the United States and France) and out of the remaining ten, five are replaced each year.

This year, the vote in the General Assembly was easy to predict — the candidacies of all five countries seeking membership in the Security Council were approved by regional groups.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin told TASS Thursday that the election of Ukraine and other four countries as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council was predictable in conditions of uncontested vote.