Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia elected to serve on UN Security Council

The United Nations General Assembly today elected Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2014. The five countries obtained the required two-thirds majority of those Member States present and voting in the 193-member Assembly. Elected in one round of secret balloting, they will replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo, whose terms will conclude at the end of this year. The five permanent Council members, which each wield the power of veto, are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Non-permanent members Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, the Republic of Korea and Rwanda will remain on the Council until the end of 2014.