Greece, Denmark, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia are expected today to receive seats in the UN Security Council through a secret vote in the General Assembly of the organization, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The 193-member world body must vote to elect five countries to be non-permanent members of the Security Council for two years, which is made up of a total of 15 countries - ten non-permanent members and five permanent - Russia, the United States, France , Great Britain and China.
Non-permanent seats are allocated by regional groups, which usually choose their own candidates, but sometimes cannot agree on a single representative. There are no such surprises this year.
Last year, Slovenia narrowly defeated Russia's close ally Belarus for the seat representing the Eastern European regional grouping, a vote that reflected strong global opposition to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This time the regional groups proposed Somalia for the African seat, Pakistan for the Asia-Pacific seat, Panama for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Denmark and Greece for two western seats.
The five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to be elected today will begin their terms on January 1, replacing those whose two-year terms expire on December 31 - Mozambique, Japan, Ecuador, Malta and Switzerland. They will join the five permanent veto-wielding members - 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. Because of Russia's veto power, however, he was unable to take action on Ukraine - and because of close US ties to Israel, he did not call for an end to hostilities in Gaza.
All five countries expected to get seats today have previously sat on the Security Council - Pakistan seven times, Panama five times, Denmark four times, Greece twice and Somalia once.
Virtually every country agrees that almost eight decades after the creation of the United Nations, the Security Council must expand to reflect the world in the 21st century, not the post-World War II era as it is now. But with 193 countries with national interests, the main question - and the biggest disagreement - is exactly how to make this happen. For four decades, these disagreements have blocked any significant reform of the UN's most powerful body.