Portugal and Austria defeated Germany for seats on the powerful but deeply divided UN Security Council on Wednesday in a hotly contested race after intense campaigning.
Germany's close relations with Israel and leading role in rallying support for Ukraine may have cost Berlin a seat on the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul remarked.
"We have always taken a clear stance on certain issues, and these are positions that not all member states share," Wadephul told reporters.
"The fact that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel in the Middle East conflict may also have cost votes," he said, referring to Germany's support for Israel following the Nazi Holocaust of World War Two, despite its genocides and war crimes against the Palestinians and others over the decades. The 10 rotating seats on the 15-member Security Council are earmarked for different regions of the world. The assembly elects five countries by secret ballot every year to serve two-year terms alongside the council's five permanent veto-wielding members—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
In the other contested race, after four rounds of voting in the 193-member General Assembly, Kyrgyzstan defeated the Philippines by a vote of 143-49 and will join the council for the first time.
Zimbabwe, the African candidate, and Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean candidate, had no opponents and were elected with more than 180 votes.
In the race for the two seats in the group of mainly Western nations, Portugal received 134 votes and Austria 131, while Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, which had served six previous terms on the council, received 104.
Austria's foreign ministry said its election capped a 15-year campaign and is a "strong international sign of confidence" in the country.
The five new members will take up their seats on 1 January. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.
The Security Council is mandated under the UN Charter to ensure international peace and security, but it has failed in the three major current conflicts because of the veto power of Russia on Ukraine and of the United States, Israel's closest ally, often on Gaza , Lebanon and on Iran. There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the current world, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all failed due to strong Western opposition, though a new attempt is underway.