Italy and Netherlands Want to Share UN Security Council Seat

The UN General Assembly elected Sweden, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Bolivia on Tuesday as non-permanent members.

The UN General Assembly Hall while the ballot is being collected to elect the new non-permanent members to the UN Security Council. (Photo: www.un.org)

• On Tuesday, Italy and the Netherlands asked to share a seat in the United Nations Security Council, after the UN General Assembly was deadlocked on which country to choose, following five rounds of voting for the final 2017-18 seat for non-permanent members.
  
  
• The 193-member General Assembly elected Sweden, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Bolivia on Tuesday to replace Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela on the council from 1 January 2017. The Netherlands and Italy were tied with 95 votes each.
  
  
• Countries need more than two-thirds of the vote to win a seat. Italy and the Netherlands were competing for a seat belonging to the “Western European and Others” regional group, but now it looks like they’ll share!
  

(With inputs from Reuters)