- 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)