EU member Slovenia defeated Russian ally Belarus on Tuesday for a rotating seat on the UN Security Council.
In a secret ballot at the UN General Assembly, Slovenia easily won the coveted spot with 153 votes. Belarus had 38 votes.
Belarus first applied for a two-year spot on the Security Council in 2007 and had been running unopposed.
But in December 2021, Slovenia also filed its candidacy for a place at the table. The application came as Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine.
Last month, as both countries were presenting their bids to join the Council from 2024 to 2025, Belarus's ambassador to the UN, Valentin Rybakov, called Slovenia's late entry a political move.
“This is not a sovereign decision of Slovenia,” Mr Rybakov said. “The political motivation of such an anti-Belarusian step is clear to absolutely everyone."
Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday's General Assembly shows why competition in UN elections is “essential”.
“UN member states doubtlessly decided that Belarus’s grave human rights abuses at home and whitewashing of Russian atrocities in Ukraine disqualify it from serving on the Security Council, a crucial body for safeguarding human rights,” Mr Charbonneau said.
The four other states elected to serve a two-year term starting in January 2024 were Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone and South Korea.
"In addition to congratulating our partners and the Republic of Korea, we also congratulate Slovenia and its election as you so note that Belarus has repeatedly demonstrated its complicity in Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. We think that those actions and many others deemed them unfit for a position on the UN Security Council," US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
The UAE's two-year term ends in December. It is presiding over the Security Council for June.
