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India was elected a non-permanent member at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) here on Tuesday after a long wait of 19 years. The country registered a terrific win, as 187 of the 191 member states in the General Assembly backed its candidature and one member state abstained from the vote. India, a founding member of the United Nations, has been on the Council six times on earlier occasion before 1992, but not since that. A non-permanent membership of the United Nation Security will help India push more aggressively for the reform of the world body. India's chances for the membership turned less difficult after Kazakhstan pulled out of the race for this seat earlier this year. In 1996, India had lost to Japan by a huge margin of 100 votes. This time, however, it is taking over the Asia seat from Japan, being the sole candidate from the region in the race. In the run-up to the vote, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who was in New York for 10 days last month, met leaders of a record 56 countries on the margins of the UN General Assembly's annual session. In February, India's candidature was endorsed by the Asian Group but it still had to get support of 128 countries, two-thirds of the 192 members of the UN General Assembly. The elected members take their spots on January 1, 2011 and will serve for two years. South Africa has returned to the Council after a break of two years when it had served its first term from 2007-2008. Colombia, like India, has previously served six terms. The five new countries will be replacing Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda. The two seats for Western Europe and Others Group were fought for by Canada, Germany and Portugal. India, which is among the three largest troop contributing countries to the UN, has already highlighted the significance of all the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) being on the Council together, which could present a united front on several contentious international issues. It has also underlined that the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) will also be on the Council together.

India elected non-permanent member of UNSC