SYG SELECTION: SECURITY COUNCIL TO HOLD "INFORMAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 001062 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2011 TAGS: PREL UN UNSC SUBJECT: SYG SELECTION: SECURITY COUNCIL TO HOLD "INFORMAL INFORMALS" MAY 25 REF: A. USUN - IO/UNP EMAIL 5/23 ¶B. USUN 892 Classified By: Ambassador John R. Bolton, Permanent Representative, 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) P5 Permanent Representatives (PRs) met May 18 to discuss next steps in the Security Council's efforts to select the next UN Secretary-General (SYG). Based on P5 agreement, the French will host "informal informals" of the Security Council on Thursday, May 25. The P5 have agreed that France host this meeting in anticipation of its upcoming Security Council Presidency in July, during which we expect to begin the formal process of considering specific candidates. ¶2. (C) In advance of the May 25 meeting, the French will circulate to all fifteen members a two-page paper that lays out the basic procedures used in the 1991 and 1996 elections. The French paper also suggests key questions for Council members to consider with regard to straw polls, transparency and the candidate list. The questions, agreed upon by the P5, are general and designed to build consensus. (The issue of regional rotation, for instance, is not addressed.) ¶3. (C) Russian PR Churkin opposed any reference in the French paper to the idea that candidates can be submitted by NGOs. Stressing that the UN was an organization of member states, Churkin argued that any reasonable candidate proposed by an NGO would be able to find a member state to sponsor him or her. "Otherwise we will end up with an election of Nobel Peace Prize winners, not the Secretary-General of the UN." The French agreed to remove the reference, but noted that a candidate introduced by an NGO had been included on the candidate list in 1991. Ambassador Bolton, noting the goal of encouraging the widest possible field of candidates, suggested that the focus should be on the Council's consultations, and not on the details of how any particular name was originally proffered. BOLTON