KATHMANDU: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 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 General Assembly.

The session will open on September 13, 2016 and close in December 2017.

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

Among the vice presidents elected on Monday are: Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Nigeria and Zambia from African Group; Bangladesh, Nepal, Solomon Islands and Turkmenistan from Asia-Pacific; Armenia from East Europe; The Bahamas, Belize and El Salvador from Latin America and Caribbean; and Belgium and Germany from Western Europe and other countries group.

The new responsibility 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, according to the Nepal's Permanent Mission in New York.

In the ongoing 70th session, Nepal's Permanent Representative Durga Prasad Bhattarai is the chairperson of Fifth Committee, one of the six main committees which looks after administrative and budgetary issues of the United Nations. He was elected to the position in June last year.

The General Assembly elected Peter Thomson, the Permanent Representative of Fiji, as the President for its upcoming 71st session through voting.

Thomson secured 94 votes against 90 of Cyprus's Andreas D. Mavroiannis.

He will replace the current General Assembly President, Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark, in September at the commencement of the 71st General Assembly session, the United Nations said.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Committee concluded its second resumed session on Monday, recommending to the General Assembly to authorise the allocation of USD 7.86 billion to finance 15 peacekeeping missions for the year beginning July 1, 2016.