Greece to Push for Security Council Seat at the UN General Assembly

Greece will push its candidacy to win a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly that takes place this week in New York.

Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis’ schedule includes high-level meetings, bilateral and multilateral contacts with foreign ministers from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as meetings with high-level officials of the UN, the European Union and regional organizations.

Gerapetritis will also participate in Greek-Cypriot trilateral meetings with Israel, Egypt and Jordan. There will also be a quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.

In March 2023 Greece officially launched the campaign to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The then-Foreign Affairs minister Nikos Dendias launched the bid at an event organized by the Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York.

In the presence of dozens of heads of permanent delegations from around the world, the Greek foreign minister noted that “Greece always supports dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable means to achieve the main goals of this Organisation: international peace, development and the promotion of human rights”.

Dendias focused on the words democracy, dialogue and diplomacy, which will form the road map for Greece’s candidacy to the UN General Assembly.

Membership of the UΝ Security Council

Membership of the United Nations Security Council is held by five permanent members and ten elected, non-permanent members.

To ensure geographical continuity, a certain number of members is allocated for each of the five UN regional groupings.

Each year the UN General Assembly elects five new members for a two-year term; these elections always begin in October, and continue until the two-thirds majority for the number of countries for each region has been reached. Re-election is allowed, but the term must not be consecutive.

The 78th session of the UN General Assembly will see presidents, monarchs and prime ministers address the world in front of the UN chamber’s famous green marble backdrop, while lower-level officials hustle on the sidelines to make deals and build relationships.

This year’s theme is “restoring trust and reigniting global solidarity”, but the credibility and reliability of the UN are currently being undermined by geopolitical conflicts, divisions and paralysis at the Security Council, as economic, humanitarian and climate-related crises continue.

On September 20, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The last time the two leaders met was on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Lithuania back in July.