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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com International
On June 28th at the United Nations Headquarters in New York Kazakhstan was elected as a non-permanent Member of the UN Security Council. It will become the first ever Central Asian country to serve on the UNSC, for a two-year term starting January 1st 2017. Kazakhstan was elected to represent the Asian-Pacific group by the Member States at the UN General Assembly, receiving 138 votes to Thailand’s 55 after two rounds of voting - more than the two-thirds majority required to win the seat. The historic victory is the result of an intensive, six-year diplomatic campaign. Kazakhstan first declared its candidacy for non-permanent membership on the UN Security Council in June 2010, and based its bid on the four pillars of food security, water security, energy security and nuclear security. As a non-permanent UN Security Council member, Kazakhstan will also seek to represent the interests of the whole of Central Asia, and intends to raise important issues for the region and its future development. “Kazakhstan is incredibly proud to have been chosen to represent Asia as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. As the first Central Asian country to be afforded the honour, we will bring our unique perspective and expertise to bear on the challenges that the council faces,” Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov said following the vote.
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