President Juan Manuel Santos Tuesday called Colombia’s election to the United Nations Security Council a “great recognition” for the country.
Colombia was elected on Monday to serve a two-year term as a rotating member of the council, representing Latin America and the Caribbean, beginning January 1, 2011.
“I want to thank you … those 186 countries out of the 192 present for supporting Colombia,” Santos said.
Santos also thanked his Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and Colombia’s ambassador to the U.N., Claudia Blum, “for such an important result for Colombia at this point in our history.”
“This is a demonstration that we are a country with support from the international community, and it recognizes that we are an important country in our region,” Holguin said in a statement.
The Security Council has five permanent members (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States) who can veto any resolution, and ten non-permanent members. Five of these rotating seats are changed each year. Colombia replaces Mexico to join Brazil representing the region.