María Fernanda Espinosa, a UN secretary-general nominee, took part in a General Assembly informal dialogue at UN headquarters in New York City, June 15, 2026. A former defense minister and foreign minister for Ecuador and ex-president of the General Assembly, she is endorsed for the UN candidacy by Antigua and Barbuda. JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE
Even as possible candidates vying for the position of United Nations secretary-general were given a notional deadline of April 1, 2026, to formally submit their nominations, the deadline was generally considered aspirational. On May 11, 2026, María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador became the latest candidate to formally throw her hat in the ring for the selection process as to who succeeds António Guterres on Jan. 1, 2027. She took part in the required General Assembly informal dialogues with UN member states on June 15.
(On June 12, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, the permanent representative of Guyana to the UN, also declared her candidacy; her dialogue is scheduled for June 18.)
“The UN needs to rebuild credibility,” Espinosa said in her opening remarks to the General Assembly on June 15, referring to herself as an outsider of the UN system but having come up through the ranks of member states as an ambassador of Ecuador. In her introduction , she spoke Spanish, English and French.
Espinosa, 61, was nominated by Antigua and Barbuda in a letter sent to the General Assembly president, Annalena Baerbock, also required by candidates. The Caribbean government said that Espinosa possesses “the experience, judgment, independence, credibility and international standing” needed for the position of secretary-general at “this historic inflexion point.”
Espinosa has served as Ecuador’s foreign minister twice and minister of national defense as well as president of the 73d session of the General Assembly from 2018 to 2019. In her vision statement as a secretary-general candidate, she wrote that the challenge the UN faces is that “the gap between what the UN promises and what it is seen to deliver has grown far too wide.”
She added: “Often, the Organization is slow when it should be decisive, fragmented when it should be aligned, and procedural when it should act with purpose.” The key to meeting this challenge, she said, is that “restoring credibility requires delivering results.”
Espinosa did not explain in her vision statement why Ecuador has not backed her candidacy, but Macky Sall, another candidate and former president of Senegal, does not have his country’s support either; instead, he is backed by Burundi. (He, too, did not explain Senegal’s not endorsing of him.)
The General Assembly, led by Baerbock, kicked off the first public dialogues, held on April 21-22, with the four candidates at the time. Each person fielded three hours of interactive, livestreamed discussions with member states and civil society groups. The debate covered the main issues before the UN, from peace to development to human rights, as well as the financial difficulties it is trying to manage amid a deepening liquidity crisis.
The four candidates who participated in April were: Michelle Bachelet, a former two-time president of Chile and UN high commissioner for human rights, backed by Brazil and Mexico; Rafael Grossi, direct0r-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, backed by his country, Argentina; Rebeca Grynspan, director-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (on leave), backed by her country, Costa Rica; and Macky Sall, a former president of Senegal and president of the African Union, backed by Burundi.
What was missing/what lit up
Espinosa took a range of questions from diplomats on June 15. Notably, on compliance with member states’ financial contributions, she acknowledge the problem of countries not paying their annual budget dues on time or in full but didn’t offer an enforcement proposal. On how to act when a permanent Council member violates international law, she advised dialogue and “good offices” rather than structural ideas. She answered questions on Security Council reform and veto restraint cautiously, and her answers on civil society participation, while supportive, did not detail how including such groups in intergovernmental processes would be carried out practically.
As a former poet, Espinosa said to the question from Djibouti about how she would draw on her background as a writer, she said that “words matter,” adding that “To be a poet is to honor words and to engage with people and bring ‘we the peoples’ to life.” — MITA HOSALI
Six promises made
Espinosa opened her dialogue by saying that no nation is immune from geopolitics or geoeconomics, that no nation should bear the burden of acting alone and that no nation should be excluded from the benefits of working together. She was candid about the UN’s failings — too often “missing in action or relegated to the sidelines, slow, fragmented and constrained” — while arguing that it retains huge potential…
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