The candidacy of Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu to become the next United Nations secretary-general was confirmed on Monday by Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, Latvia’s ambassador to the UN and president of the Security Council for November.
Pavluta-Deslandes said during a press conference that Turkey’s government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, officially nominated Sinirlioglu over the weekend. He currently chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and is seeking to replace António Guterres.
The nomination follows weeks of speculation about Sinirlioglu’s possible entry into the contest. It comes after another non-binding poll held on Friday showed that the Security Council still lacks agreement on a candidate to put forward to the General Assembly.
In the latest round, all candidates received two opposing votes. Costa Rican candidate Rebeca Grynspan remains the leading contender, but none of the candidates has avoided opposition from the council’s permanent members: the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. A veto from any of them would block the process.
Alongside Sinirlioglu and Grynspan, six other candidates are in the race: Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Ecuador’s María Fernanda Espinosa and Ivonne Baki, Uganda’s Olara Otunnu and the United Arab Emirates’ Lana Zaki Nusseibeh. Former Senegalese president Macky Sall withdrew his candidacy in October.
Pavluta-Deslandes said the latest nominations indicate that the contest remains open, while acknowledging a sense of urgency among council members. She said they wanted to speed up the process and reach a result as soon as possible, although she did not announce dates for the next votes.
The ambassador said the aim was to select a candidate soon enough for that person to be prepared to take office on January 1, when Guterres is due to leave the post.
Sinirlioglu served as Turkey’s representative to the UN from 2016 to 2023. He was foreign minister in Turkey’s interim government in 2015 and had previously spent several years as undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry. In 2023, Guterres appointed him to coordinate an independent assessment on Afghanistan commissioned by the Security Council.
Sources: El País Internacional.