Estonian delegation, led by president Kersti Kaljulaid, cheering, after the successful voting result that made Estonia a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on 7 June 2019. Photo by Eleri Ever.
Estonia gains a seat at the UN Security Council
7.06.2019
Estonia has, for the first time, been elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The vote took place on 7 June at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York City. All 193 UN member states were in present to cast their votes. Estonia was elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021 with 132 votes.
The non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed on a regional basis. Estonia belongs to the Eastern European group and its main regional competitor for the seat was Romania, a country of almost 20 million inhabitants. Estonia has not been a member of the Security Council before, while Romania has been a member on four occasions.
In the first voting round, Estonia received 111 votes and Romania 78 – both countries short of a majority of two thirds, 129 votes, needed to get elected. In the second voting round, 132 countries voted for granting Estonia a non-permanent seat, while Romania was supported by 58 countries.
