On 6 July in New York, President Macky Sall held separate talks with three Permanent Representatives to the United Nations: Fu Cong of China, Michael Waltz of the United States and Jérôme Bonnafont of France. In a single day, the candidate for Secretary-General met three of the Security Council's five permanent members.
Talks centred on the reform and governance of the UN and on the future of multilateralism. After his meeting with Ambassador Waltz, the candidate described the exchanges as constructive and in-depth.
Those meetings closed a diplomatic sequence that began in late June in Beijing, where President Macky Sall met Foreign Minister Wang Yi. On 2 July, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received him in Athens, four days before the talks in New York.
The pace follows the Council's calendar. According to the Security Council Report, Council members are continuing their meetings with candidates in July and are expected to hold their first straw polls in the last week of the month. At this normal stage of the process, every candidate engages with the fifteen Council members, including the five permanent members.
With every interlocutor, President Macky Sall sets out the same programme: a reformed and effective United Nations, closer cooperation with regional organisations, and conflict prevention at the centre of the Organisation's work. His vision statement, filed in March, details each point.
The candidacy also has a regional dimension. No African has led the Organisation since Kofi Annan left office at the end of 2006, and President Macky Sall is the only declared African candidate in a field of six.
After these consultations come the first straw polls, then the Security Council's recommendation to the General Assembly. The next Secretary-General's term begins on 1 January 2027.
Full vision statement: www.mackysall.net