Caracas, October 17 (RHC-Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hailed on Thursday the admission of his country as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the next two years.
"It's a victory for our homeland at the UN. I give thanks on behalf of our people to the 181 countries that supported us for our bid to the Security Council," said the president. Maduro has vowed to strive for reform of the United Nations after the country takes its seat.
He said in a televised speech that his government will work to build a multilateral world, and a UN system "free of colonialism and imperialist pressures."
Venezuela "will take the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean, as a bloc of independent nations, the voice ... of the new world," he said.
Venezuela, along with Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Spain, was elected Thursday by the UN General Assembly as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Its two-year term begins on January 1st, 2015.
Angola, Malaysia and Venezuela are members of the 120-member Non-Aligned Group of Nations (NAM).