The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously elected Nepal as one of its four vice-presidents from the Asia-Pacific Group of States for the 71st session of the UNGA. The session opens on September 13, 2016 and closes in December 2017.

With this election, Nepal will be a member of the UNGA General Committee, which serves as the bureau of the Assembly, for three sessions, for the first time since joining the UN in 1955, Nepal’s Permanent Mission in New York said in a statement.

The General Committee comprises president of the General Assembly, 21 vice-presidents representing five geographical regions, chairpersons of the UNGA’s six thematic main committees, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. All except the last category are elected by the UNGA in June every year.

Tuesday’s election provides Nepal yet another opportunity to contribute directly to the work of the UN and continue further enhancing the positive visibility of the country in the comity of nations, said the statement.

In addition to the active and effective overall representation of Nepal at the UN system and various treaty bodies in New York, the Permanent Mission represents Nepal as an elected member of the Asia-Pacific Group of countries at the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS executive board, and the Unicef executive board.

Panel recommends $7.86 billion for peacekeeping

The fifth committee (administrative and budgetary) of the 70th session of the UNGA recommended $7.86 billion to finance 15 peacekeeping missions for the year beginning July 1. Durga Prasad Bhattarai, Nepal’s ambassador/permanent representative to the UN, was elected chair of the committee in June last year.