The six candidates seeking to become the next UN secretary general took to the global stage on Thursday, giving their ideas on how to rescue an organisation facing its deepest crisis in decades, as wars multiply, geopolitical rivalries intensify and confidence in multilateralism erodes.
During a 90-minute televised meeting in the General Assembly Hall, the candidates were challenged on topics ranging from Gaza and the Strait of Hormuz to artificial intelligence, climate change and how they would overhaul an institution struggling with funding shortfalls and questions about its effectiveness.
The debate, hosted by Bloomberg, came a week before the Security Council begins a “straw poll” to narrow the field to a successor for Secretary General Antonio Guterres, whose second term ends on December 31.
While all six agreed that the UN needed major reforms, they differed on how the next secretary general should lead the organisation. Some emphasised moral authority; others highlighted diplomacy, reform or management.
On Security Council vetoes, Costa Rica's former vice president Rebeca Grynspan said the UN chief should become most active when the council is unable to act.
“The blockade of the Security Council is when the job of the secretary general starts,” she said, pointing to her role brokering the Black Sea grain initiative and suggesting similar diplomacy could ease tension over the Strait of Hormuz.
Guyana's former foreign affairs minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett struck a similar tone.
“One thing the secretary general does not have the luxury of doing, and that is not trying,” she said.
Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet emphasised persistence and moral leadership, arguing the secretary general must continue speaking out against violations of international law even when diplomacy appears to fail.
“The secretary general cannot give up,” she said. “He has to insist and try to try.”
Pressed on Gaza, where repeated UN appeals have failed to halt the conflict, Ms Bachelet defended the importance of moral authority but said the office must use every tool available under the UN Charter.
Argentina's Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, offered a vision rooted in his experience negotiating access to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“The metric of the success of the Security Council … is certainly not the amount of resolutions that can be adopted,” he said, arguing today's geopolitical fragmentation required an impartial Secretary General capable of proposing “concrete solutions” rather than simply condemning parties to conflicts.
Former Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa focused on the wider consequences of modern conflicts, arguing that regional wars increasingly reverberate through energy markets, food prices and global supply chains.
“There is always space for the secretary general to operate as an honest broker,” she said, adding that the office required persistence and a visible presence in conflict zones.
Former Senegalese president Macky Sall repeatedly returned to one theme: rebuilding trust among increasingly divided world powers.
“As secretary general, the added value I could bring is to speak to everyone, even at times of difficult tension, and create the necessary corridors of dialogue,” he said.
While the first half of the debate centred on diplomacy, the second focused on the institution.
Asked what they hoped governments and citizens would say after five years in office, nearly every candidate pledged a leaner, more effective world body.
Ms Espinosa envisioned “a UN that is trusted … more agile … and more united".
Success would mean proving the organisation was “back on track” and capable of reform, Mr Grossi said.
Ms Bachelet hoped people would see “a UN that's closer to their issues” and “leaner but not weak".
Ms Grynspan offered perhaps the evening's most memorable line: “Nobody will ask me again, 'Where is the UN?'”
Ms Rodrigues-Birkett pointed to tangible results on peace and security and the post-2030 development agenda, while Mr Sall compared the secretary general to an “organist” bringing diverse instruments into harmony.
