UN starts looking for a replacement for Secretary General Antonio Guterres
26 November 2025 12:14
The United Nations has officially announced the search for new candidates for the post of Secretary-General. This was announced by the representative of the General Assembly Annalena Burbock, Bloomberg reports, "Komersant Ukrainian".
“Our choice will send a powerful signal about who we are – the UN – and whether we truly serve all the people of the world,” she said.
The presidents of the UN General Assembly and Security Council have asked the member states of the organization to nominate candidates who could replace the current Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after his term expires in 2026.
UN members were urged to give serious consideration to women’s candidacies when selecting candidates for the post of Secretary General and emphasized “the importance of regional diversity in the selection process.”
Here are some of the people who have put themselves forward to be the next UN chief:
Rafael Mariano Grossi, an Argentine diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, has worked to win over the Trump administration and has positioned himself as the pragmatic diplomat needed to secure U.S. funding.
Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first female president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has introduced tax and education reforms while in office, but her criticism of China, which has veto power on the Security Council, could hurt her chances.
Rebecca Greenspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica, is an economist who is now a senior UN official. She criticized Trump’s tariffs for hurting the world’s poor and helped restore Ukraine’s exports of food and fertilizer to the world after Russia’s invasion.
