Pretoria - South Africa will soon hear if its bid to have a non-permanent seat on the influential UN Security Council (UNSC) will be successful.
The 65th session of the UN General Assembly, which gets underway in New York this week, is to hold elections for the African seat of the Security Council. South Africa is among the five candidates and has been endorsed by the African Union as the candidate for the African seat that would be vacated by Uganda.
If elected, South Africa will serve a second term as a non-permanent member of the council. The country served its first ever term on the council in 2007-08.
The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who arrived in New York on Monday, said the visit to the UN headquarters sought to demonstrate South Africa's commitment to the role of the UNSC in the maintenance of international peace and security.
If elected to the UNSC, South Africa will be guided by its commitment to multilateralism, advancement of the African agenda and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, she said.
Countries vying for the other four seats are India for the Asian; Colombia for the Latin America seat while the two seats are contested by three countries (Canada, Germany and Portugal) in the category of Western Europe and others group.
