Jakarta. UN chief candidate Lana Nusseibeh thanked the pro-multilateralism Indonesia on Monday for its engagements in the selection process, not long after Jakarta pushed for a secretary-general who backs the poorer nations with concrete results.

The incumbent UN Secretary-General António Guterres will end his second five-year term in about two months. Nusseibeh, a senior Emirati diplomat, became the latest candidate to be Guterres’ successor. 

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) over the weekend, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry wrote that it was keeping an eye on the recent straw polls. They specifically mentioned Nusseibeh’s entry into the race.

Jakarta called for a “credible, transparent, and impartial selection process” — one that also holds a “strong commitment to multilateralism”, the concept of where many different countries with different goals can work together. For Indonesia, the ideal secretary-general is someone who also amplifies “the voices of developing countries and delivers concrete results for all”.

Nusseibeh, who is also the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, later responded to the post to say her thanks for its “engagement with this important process”.

“Indonesia has long been a strong voice for multilateralism and for developing countries at the UN,” Nusseibeh wrote. 

She also echoed Jakarta’s calls that the next UN boss must uphold international law. 

“... [and also] bring countries together and deliver meaningful reform that produces results for all member states.”

Six other candidates, including Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne A-Baki and the country’s ex-defense minister María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, are also vying for the same position. UN nuclear agency chief Agertina Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Costa Rican economist Rebecca Grynspan Mayufis, Ugandan senior diplomat Olara Otunnu, as well as Former Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett are in the running.

The organization’s premier decision-making body, the UN Security Council, recently held its seventh straw polls where members had an informal ballot to pick the name to be recommended to the General Assembly.

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