Media Stakeouts: On the side of the interactive dialogues for the position of the next Secretary-General of the United Nations

Good morning, colleagues. Thanks so much for joining us. It is my pleasure to present Her Excellency Annalena Baerbock, the President of the General assembly, who this morning will convene the interactive dialogues for the selection and appointment process of the next Secretary General of the United Nations. Her Excellency will say a few words and then she will depart to convene the dialogues. So she will be unable to take questions this morning, but you will see her shortly in the Trusteeship Council. Your Excellency, you have the floor.

Good morning and thank you all for joining me here today. In just a few minutes, I will convene the first of the interactive dialogues with candidates for the position of Secretary General for the United Nations. While the interactive dialogues mark a critical step in the process and highlight the importance role of the General assembly in the selection and appointment of the next Secretary General, these dialogues also come at a pivotal Moment for the United nations, the selection of the Secretary General has widespread consequences that resonate far beyond this building. Our choice will shape the direction of the world's unique multilateral organization and demonstrate whether the United nations truly represents the more than 8 billion people around the world who are half women and girls. A decade has passed since the last new Secretary General was chosen, and in those 10 years, the world has undergone profound change. We have witnessed shifting geopolitical dynamics, a rise in violence and conflict, an accelerating climate crisis, rapid technological transformation, a global health pandemic, and widening inequalities between nations. At the same time, while the United nations is under unprecedented political and financial pressure, the need for global cooperation has never been more urgent, especially given the fact that in our interconnected world, what unfolds in one one region echoes across all others. Therefore, respect for international law and engagement within the United nations is neither abstract nor theoretical. In this context, the selection of the next Secretary General is not simply an administrative decision. It is a statement of intent. It will send a public, powerful message about what the United nations stands for and how it intends to address the challenges of today's interconnected world. The next Secretary General will be entrusted not only with navigating these challenges, but also with advancing essential reforms to ensure an organization born 80 years ago from the ashes of two world wars and is capable of meeting the 21st century challenges. In a time of unprecedented financial and political pressure on the United nations, strong and principled effective leadership is essential to ensure that the Charter's promise of serving the people is kept sun through its agencies and programs ensures everyday access for million of people to clean drinking water, education for children and even aviation safety. 4 billion passengers every year taking airplanes. Based on the Revitalization resolution and joint letter with the President of the Security Council, the interactive dialogues are essential to ensuring a transparent and and inclusive process. During the three hour dialogues, candidates will have the chance to highlight their vision for the United nations by answering questions from 193 member states. They will also be given the opportunity to demonstrate their proven leadership abilities, experience and skills to lead a strong fit for the future organization, as well as their capacity to deliver across all three pillars of the United nations of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. These pillars are not separate mandates, but are deeply interconnected. They are interconnected commitments that form the foundation of a peaceful, just and prosperous world. And the Secretary General must be their strongest advocate. The UN Charter begins with we the peoples and the decision about the future leadership does not concern a few, but all of us in and outside the United Nations. It is therefore essential that civil society is heard as well. Obviously, with over 10 million civil society organizations worldwide, it wasn't possible to invite all of them. So the UN had an open call for a civil society that attracted interest from organizations all over the world, covering a huge range of thematic areas. The voices in question of civil society representatives, both in room and virtually will be heard in the Trusteeship council alongside member states and observers. In a nutshell, that is one of the toughest jobs in the world, but it's also one of the most important as the next Secretary General will not only shape the future of this institution, but in her or his role as the strongest defender of the UN Charter, also that of the international rules based order. I thank you.

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Candidate jointly updated by President for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations For Excellency. Given the time constraints, we'll only be able to take a couple of questions. The first question will be answered immediately.

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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to introduce the candidate to have been nominated by President Nixon for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. It is my great mission to introduce the candidate jointly resident mixer for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. Your Excellency, Michelle B. Given the established amendments, we will take

a quick number of questions.

We will begin with the first one and we follow immediately by the answer.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

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So I'll rehearse. Right. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to introduce the candidate jointly nominated by Brazil and Mexico for the. The position of Secretary General of the United Nations. Her Excellency, Michelle Bachelet. Madam, you have the floor. And then in the end, it's like. Okay, so you. Because she will speak, and then I have to speak again. She will just say a speech and then you. And then you introduce it again. So. Yeah, you can do it. Okay. Oh, yeah. Giving the. Establish time limits. We will take a limit number of questions. We will begin with the first one to be followed immediately by the answer, please. And then. Okay. All right. Hope it goes well. Thanks.

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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to introduce the candidate jointly nominated by Brazil and Mexico for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations, Her Excellency, Michelle Bachelet. Madam, you have the floor.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here. Well, as you know, I have presented my candidacy today with deep conviction. More than ever, the world needs a united nation that upholds the principles and purposes, purposes enshrined in each other. We need an organization that is not only committed to its core values, but also capable of responding swiftly and effectively to the challenges of our time. My candidacy is driven by a clear vision for reform and strengthening. This is not only about modernizing processes or adjusting structure. It is about ensuring that the United nations is fully free, fully equipped to meet the demands of today's world. We need a UN that is more agile, more efficient, more responsive, and more focused on delivering concrete results for the people we serve in current world. That is a non easy world. You see, there's not many candidates for the job. They might appear in the future, but until now, there's not many. I think they feel that you need to be a little bit courageous and crazy to come to the job. But the thing is that I am coming here because I have the conviction that the United nations is crucial and the world needs multilateralism and needs a secretary general that can really care of what's going on and can be able to, through dialogue, through the best possible relation with all member states, try to build this environment of understanding of that dialogue, even to define how you work with the differences, because of course, there are differences, but you can try to identify the way you produce similarities, similar ideas, but also how we work with differences. And that is something in politics you do always, because always in a country you always also see differences. So in a world marked by rising tensions, ongoing conflicts, persistent inequalities and growing distrust, we must reaffirm the enduring value of multilateralism, international law and international cooperation as indispensable tools for peace, development and human dignity. Because at the end of the day, the legitimacy of the United nations rests not just on the mandates it carries, but also on its ability to make a tangible and positive impact in the lives of people.

So

I mentioned in my, I don't know you heard it in my initial words, I remember Mandela, and I remember Mandela because I think that he has been a leader that really I feel he understood the importance of peace, the importance of dialogue. Even with the hard life he had. He understood that you always think you need to think big on the planet, in this case on the country, on the reconciliation of the country. This other situation will be on how we ensure that the world reconciles, if I may say, in terms of all the challenges that poor countries, bigger countries have, and how we can ensure that we all work together to have to be a better place and a better place that ensures dignity and respect to all humankind.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Given the established time limits, we will take a limited number of questions. We'll begin with the first one to be followed immediately by the answer. Please.

Thank you very much. Madame Bachelet. Edith Lettera from the Associated press. Last month, 28 Republican members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. senate wrote a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to veto your nomination to be the next UN Secretary General. And among other things, the letter called you a pro abortion zealot. What is your response?

Well, I read the letter. The first thing I have to say is that I truly believe in women's rights. And I don't think you can separate women's rights. I don't think you can say women have the right to A, B and C and not the right to def. I think women have to decide on their own lives, also decide how many children they have. That is on the personal level. But if I am Secretary General. Doesn't matter what I believe in. You're not big being a Secretary General. You can have your opinion, your beliefs. You can even defend those opinions if you believe they're important for the world, for the women of the world. And I will always be by the side of women, of having opportunities that respected in all levels. This is an issue that's controversial. Every country has its own decisions and I respect that. But as Secretary General, my role will be be to ensure the United Nations, I mean talking member states agreements like for example the Beijing Conference and the Beijing Plan of Action or the Rio Conference or CEDAW decisions are implemented. That is my role. So doesn't matter how people what I think about certain issues, I have my opinion. I'm a medical doctor. I think some of these issues are health issues as well. But as Secretary General, I will do what needs to be done. And Beijing is still there, it's valid. And we need to continue pushing. Cairo is still there and we need to continue advancing. And of course CEDAW is there and CSW are there to remember us. We need to continue advancing on women's rights.

Just as a quick follow up, are you concerned about the possibility of a veto by the United States?

Well, the veto exists on the five permanent members. It can be applied to any candidate. I have to say that I was President when President Trump was elected the first time. So we sort of had one year and a half that I was President of Chile and he was President of the US and we continue with good relationship between the US And Chile. The US Is an important power in the UN it's an important power in the world. And if I'm selected President, I will have the same relationship with every member state powerful or powerless.

Thank you very much. We will go with the next one, please.

Good afternoon, Ms. Bachelet. Gabriela Lizondo from Al Jazeera English news channel. After three hours of questions, I'm sure you're pretty tired. So thanks for coming out and doing this.

Yeah, well, as a doctor I said that my electrocephalogram is completely like that. But it's okay. I still can answer.

I know there are lots of questions, so I'll make mine very succinct and very quick. One question. I know there's all four of the candidates. You all come with different backgrounds and different experience. What is the one thing that you have that differentiates you from the other three candidates that will make you the best person to lead this organization?

Well, it is up to member state to Decide which is the best candidate and why. I would never speak against other candidates, to be honest. And what I can say is what I can provide. That doesn't mean that I'm not saying I'm better than them. I'm saying that what I have in my experience, a lot of experience, even though don't tell me that I'm age, because that's something different. Because I always say that I have accumulative youth, because I think youth is a thing of not losing, not making natural what is unnatural. What I bring with me, I think, is a history of being as a president twice in charge of a country who is not as big as the US not as big as Brazil, but 20 million people and a country that has gone after dictatorship. So we have gone through transitions from dictatorship to democracy. I have been Minister of Defense, so I have to deal with very complex contexts in a country where there were violations of human rights and we had to deal how we manage in terms of transitional justice. I've been a person who has been in charge of chairing intergovernmental entities like UNASUR and others, where I had to look at answers and solve problems. I had to mediate the world problems in. There was intent of coup d' etat in Bolivia at the time. I called on a meeting of Unasur and I went directly through silent diplomacy. Now, I can tell at that time it was not public. And I sat down with the people who were before, I mean, trying to push for the coup d' etat against the President of the Republic and convince them that it was not the good thing to do, that the international community in Latin America will not accepted, et cetera. So in many other issues, I've been also having this mediation. Not only skills, but experiences, if I may say, but also I really believe in dialogue. I really believe that we need much more capacity to. You need patience on one hand, resilience on the other. And I think I have both. But also I have clarity on what needs to be done, because I know the UN from inside, but also not that inside that I'm able to have fresh eyes. What needs to be done. Sometimes when you are inside for a long time, you lose the capacity of seeing with fresh eyes the organization because you are part of it. But wherever I've been, I'm always coming and looking at what can we do better? What can we improve? So maybe many other things, but let's keep it a little tear.

Thank you very much. We've got next one, please.

China, Felipe Global Brazil. United nations is facing A relevance crisis nowadays with wars happening, countries not following the rules. In your vision, what should be done to change this?

Well,

I think the only possibility is to do as much as possible to strengthen multilaterals. And strengthen multilaterals mean many different things. And to stand by the shutter of the UN and also to ensure that certain organs of the UN really work that are able to prevent these things from happening. I believe that the SG50 future SG has to have a real important, if I would say time dedicated to prevention, prevention in terms of creating the capacity or improving or strengthening, because there is some capacity at the UN system at all levels, not only at the dppa, but also at country level, on early warning signs to be able to reach read that early warning sign and identify when the physical presence of the Secretary General needs to be there. I believe that the Secretary General, the future Secretary, should be very visible in the field and also can send special envoys. But I do believe that we also need to do as much as possible that the United Nations Day. Because the important thing of people believing that the United nations makes sense is that they feel that the United nations is taking all the possible ways, strategies and mechanism to ensure peace, but also to ensure development and to ensure respect on human rights. And that's not an easy task, but that's what the work is about.

Thank you very much, Madam, Madame Bachelet,

Elaine Reyes with China Global Television Network. In your statement, the themes of hope and trust, rebuilding trust were evident all the way throughout. So if you are chosen as the next UN Secretary General, what will be your first concrete actions using hope and trust as guiding principles?

Well, I don't have a magic remedy for that, a potion. Potion. I don't have a magic potion that I could give to member states and particularly the P5, so they can drink it and the next time everybody's friends and so on. But I do believe, because I'm a person who believes in persistence, that we need to work with. I need to work with the P5, the E10, but also with all memberships to bring, to produce dialogue. Because one of the things is that the lack of trust is not only among P5, it's also I've been in meetings with groupings, geographical groupings, and there's a lot of lack of trust and it's a lot of lack of effect, I may say also and of course of the world, with the UN and in particular with the Security Council, because that's why they see in the television when they're looking at crisis, that not being Solved. So I don't have the magic formula, but I'll do everything is needed. And also in terms of dialogue, in terms of insistence, in terms of showing, and it has worked in, in other issues for me that to do that is not only the right thing to do, the just thing to do, but the smart thing to do, that everybody benefits when everybody's better.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for taking questions.

Chris Reyes with Canadian Broadcasting. Arguably the role of the UN Secretary General is the most prominent advocate for the the multilateral system. I think you would agree that this is a system under attack. And yet what we have seen is that the UN has been challenged in trying to fight for this system. Are you confident that you could change that under your leadership?

What I'm confident is that I will strive for it, that I will do my biggest effort for it always. The Secretary General has a lot of money mandates. It can use, as I said, many of these prevention that you can put it into action. You can Also use Article 99 and go to the Security Council when it's deadlocked and it's not having results. So you have certain capacities. But at the end it's member states responsibility to be able to respond in the way. But I will do everything that is in my hand and everything that I believe in to try to make this change.

Just as a quick follow up, many of the statements that have come from the highest levels of this organization has fallen flat against powerful criticisms. How would you change that?

Well,

I think that when you are seeing things that are unacceptable, when human rights are being violated in terrible ways, the SD cannot be silenced, can have to speak up on behalf of that part of humanity. And sometimes that helps in terms that people, the major countries can feel that they need to explain, respond much better what is going on or to have a response to what's going on as a Security Council. But also I would also try to support the General Assembly's activities in terms of what else they can do about it. So I will try hard that will

say thank you so much.

This is Namo Abdullah with Rudao Media Network. The United nations has had nine secretaries general over the course of nearly 80 years, but none of them has been a woman. Why do you believe that has been the case? And also my second question, if you have time to respond, do you think of any conflict, any war in recent years that represented a clear violation of the UN Charter? Thank you.

Last election there was also a movement that women should be in 2016, should be a Secretary General and Many countries have made that public statement and so on and there was a lot of female candidates. But at the end it did not happen. So I would say, if I am polite, I would say the world was not prepared for it. Is it prepared now? I hope so, because I do believe that if we really want a UN that represent the world, it needs to be also. I mean, it needs to have two things because here is there's two. If I would say approaches it's a woman, but also from a particular region. I mean, some countries do not believe in gender, non believe in regions. And they say it has to be a merit and competent one. My answer always why we speak of merit only once because of women. Men have to have competences and have merits as well. So I would say it would be a very good signal that to show that the UN and also it could be get hope for many people because it's something different. Nobody will know exactly what that means. But it might mean that comes somebody with different eyes, with different perspective with believing that peace is essential and you can do whatever is needed to obtain peace. And that can give also hope to people. That why I guess a mix of matches in the past of not. Not everyone convinced that women can have a play a very important role. But I think we have seen in the world you have great men and great women leaders and I think should be given an opportunity this time.

Thank you very much. We'll take two more questions, please.

Thank you so much.

Nearest what?

Thank you very much. The last question please. Yes, yes. You.

Me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yoshita Singh with Press Trust of India. The new Secretary General, Madam, will lead

an 80 year old United nations where reform of bodies like the UN Security Council is launched long overdue.

And to ensure representation of developing global bodies like India as permanent members in the Security Council to reflect current geopolitical realities. What will you do differently to ensure

that these reforms become a reality under

your leadership going forward and to ensure that the UN stays relevant? Thank you.

I mean, I guess you know perfectly well that whatever the Secretary General does, the decision of a reform is there is a decision of member states. But I think there is an opportunity because the pact of the future there was one of the things, one of the articles, one of the, if I would say, decisions there is to reform. When we see what the people of the world looks at the UN is what they see on the Security Council. They see a Security Council that is not solving the problem, that is paralyzed. They have deadlocks on. On issues that really means the suffering of millions of people. And I think it's a real need for a reform of the Security Council. And in that reform, the member states will decide how they do it. But in order to really be able to be different, I think it needs to have representation of member states who are not represented there as permanent member states or non permanent members as well, because that's the only possibility to sort of solve the deadlock, if I would say the blockage that's there, that doesn't permit. There won't be no hope for the multilateral system. Not hope. Maybe it sounds a little bit too much, but if we don't reform the Security Council, I will do my best to convince with my good offices, because I don't have the. I don't have the mandate to do that, but I will do my best to try to convince. But I have to say in the General assembly and it's expressed in the pact of future, there's a huge movement that they understand that the Security Council needs to be reformed. In which way? It will depend on how member states decide. But if I'm selected Secretary General, I will put push as much as possible. So that happens. Thank you very much. All the best.

Have a great afternoon. Thank you so much.