At the opening event for the occasion, the participants were addressed by the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, who was previously Latvia's longest-serving Foreign Minister with a longstanding interest in securing a seat at the Security Council table. The campaign has a motto: “Together for Peace and Resilience”.
After his address, a performance was then given by the Youth Choir “Kamēr...” who began the work of charming Permanent Representatives of UN member states, their deputies, and other senior officials from all the world’s regions into giving their support to Latvia's aspiration.
The campaign aims to see Latvia elected to the United Nations Security Council for the 2026–2027 term in a 2025 election. Latvia is running for the seat of an elected member of the UNSC for the first time.
"We are fully prepared to shoulder our part of the responsibility to uphold international peace and security and hope you will trust us with your vote," says a web page set up to promote the bid.
"To garner that support, Latvia has to undertake an international pre-election campaign, which includes addressing member states during bilateral visits and meetings on the sidelines of multilateral events, as well as increasing the international visibility of Latvia," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A promotional brochure has also been published, which you can examine in the attachment to this story.
For Latvia to be elected, it must receive support from at least two-thirds of UN Member States, or 129 votes from among 193 voting countries. Latvia became a full-fledged member of the United Nations on September 17, 1991.
In April 2023, when Rinkēvičs was still Foreign Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the 'thematic lines of action' for the UN campaign: the rule of law and democracy (incl. good governance, societal resilience and development of an integrated society, democracy and the rule of law, international law); women’s empowerment (incl. implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda); solutions for security, sustainability and development (incl. climate, water, cyber security, and digital technologies). Resilience is the basic theme.
