Latvia remains sole candidate from the Eastern European group for a seat on the UN Security Council

RIGA - Montenegro has withdrawn its candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC), leaving Latvia as the sole candidate from the group of Eastern European countries and looking with confidence at the possibility of being elected, Andrejs Pildegovics, head of the secretariat of Latvia's candidacy for the UNSC, admits in an interview with the Diena newspaper.

The diplomat reminded that Latvia launched its candidacy in 2011, in competition with Montenegro, which had submitted its candidacy two and a half years before us. The situation has developed in such a way that in the last days of January this year Montenegro decided to withdraw its candidacy.

At the end of January, Montenegro diplomatically informed Latvia that it was withdrawing its candidacy and would focus on the goal of joining the European Union (EU).

In the light of this development, Latvia is counting on broad support in the UN vote. "To a large extent, we are now focusing not only on the final meters before the vote, but also on preparing for the practical work in the UNSC," Pildegovics added.

Asked if there were still any negative scenarios in the voting, the diplomat said that historically it has been the case that if there are several candidates, voting is held until a country is elected. During the Cold War, there have been cases where voting has gone several dozen rounds.

"We are now the only candidate country, which is why we are so confident about this election. Theoretically there is a possibility for countries to put themselves forward even on election day. But in practice, there are no such cases of such a late nomination in such circumstances, at least not that I know of," said the Latvian representative.

Latvia needs two-thirds of the votes of the UN member states to be elected - 129 votes out of 193. 191 out of 193 countries will have the right to vote. "Of course, it is not guaranteed that all countries will turn up, but we are counting on being elected, and my aim is that Latvia should have a broad mandate, I would even say a qualified majority," Pildegovics said, noting that Latvia is not counting on the support of aggressor countries in the vote and is not lobbying Russia, Belarus, North Korea or Russia's allies for its election.

Asked whether there was also any counteraction against Latvia's election to the UNSC, the diplomat admitted that there is: "Traditionally, counteraction, disinformation, and examples of slander, have come from Russia."

"We see Russian attempts to distort the understanding of international law, of the essence of the UN Charter, and especially in the last three years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (...) We are certainly not a handy, convenient partner for Russia in the UNSC - we oppose them quite a lot, and it is quite understandable that for us at the moment, in the current circumstances, one of the most important reasons why we want to be in the UNSC has to do with the Russian aggression in Ukraine, with the fact that we think that the outcome of this aggression will have a big impact on the future of the whole UN. We will see how international principles, international law, will be changed, and we have a fundamental disagreement with Russia in this respect. In other words, even if Russia manages to veto a UNSC vote or to get its preferred softer language, the very fact that there are countries in the UNSC that are initiating a discussion on this is unpleasant for Russia," Pildegovics said.