Russia emphasizes the difficulty of choosing the UN Secretary General and the role of geographical rotation

The selection and appointment to the post of UN Secretary General is a complex procedure, and the result partly depends on the preferences of an individual state, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Alimov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“The selection and appointment of the highest administrative official of the UN is a complex procedure. The result undoubtedly depends on the preferences of an individual state - even a permanent member of the Security Council, as in the case of Russia - but only partly. I will say more, in the modern realities of acute geopolitical tension, the publicly voiced preferences of a particular state may ultimately not work in favor of the candidate,” Alimov said.

In his opinion, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the process of selecting a candidate for such an important international post is the quintessence of diplomacy and the search for the maximum possible balance of interests between states, often standing on opposite positions regarding the settlement of certain global problems.

“The fact is that, according to established practice, the new Secretary General is approved by the General Assembly. However, the preliminary selection of the optimal candidate is carried out by the Security Council. For these purposes, the UN Security Council holds “indicative” votes behind closed doors, which help to identify the preferences of its members,” the deputy minister explained.

According to Alimov, three such rounds have taken place to date, the last one on September 18.

“Their results should not be made public so that there is no external pressure on the members of the Council when making such an important decision. However, in practice, the results are still leaked to the press,” he said.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that at the final stages, “indicative” voting is carried out using ballots of different colors - for permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council. As the agency’s interlocutor explained, this is being done in order to understand whether there are any objections to this or that candidate from the “five”: Russia, China, the USA, England and France.

“After all, during the final official vote, each of these countries can hypothetically block any applicant using the right of veto. In the current election cycle, the turn to nominate a candidate, according to the unofficial principle of geographic rotation, has passed to the Latin American and Caribbean region,” he noted.

Despite the fact that this rule has previously been violated - a native of Portugal, António Guterres, took his current position ten years ago instead of a representative of the Eastern European group - Russia has publicly declared its commitment to this principle, the deputy minister noted.

“We believe that members of the Security Council pay priority attention to applicants from the specified region. Although, of course, each candidate has his own experience and advantages over competitors,” Alimov concluded.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in June that the current UN Secretary General is openly playing along with the West, including on Ukraine.

Guterres' term as secretary general expires on December 31. Moscow was previously visited by such candidates to replace Guterres as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, head of UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) Rebeca Greenspan, and ex-President of Chile Michelle Bachelet.