2 October 2006
THAROOR: Good afternoon, everyone. I’ve just written to Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to express my warmest congratulations on the outcome of today’s poll in the Security Council. It is clear that he will be our next secretary general.
It’s a great honor and a great responsibility to be secretary- general, and I wish Mr. Ban every success in that task.
I entered the race because of my devotion to the United Nations. And for the same reason, I will strongly support him as the next secretary-general. The United Nations and the world has a stake in his success.
Throughout this process, I have been sustained by my strong faith in the values and principles of the United Nations, in its achievements and its potential, and in the quality and dedication of its staff around the world. It has been a privilege to articulate and defend my vision of this indispensable organization to which I have devoted so much of my professional life.
I should like to express my gratitude to the government of India for having nominating me as its official candidate. Though I have never been an official of the government, I consider it a great honor to have been the bearer of India’s nomination, as well as of the hopes and aspirations of so many well-wishers in India and around the world.
I’ve been humbled by the support, the good wishes and the prayers that they have conveyed to me. Although I did not win the race, it is a matter of genuine pride to me that I was deemed worthy by so many people and won the votes of so many governments, including today.
I thank you all. And I pledge that whatever task I next undertake, I will endeavor to live up to the faith and trust that so many have expressed in me.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: Can you just — what are you running for?
THAROOR: I was running for the secretary-generalship of the United Nations.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: And what are your plans now?
THAROOR: Well, I will seek to make a contribution, as I’ve tried to do, in whatever way is open to me. And at this stage, I have a job to get back to. I intend very much to be back at my desk, continuing to run the Department of Public Information, at least as long as that possibility is available to me.
QUESTION: Mr. Tharoor, would you consider now going back to India and paying back what India has given to you?
THAROOR: You know, I’ve actually genuinely been focused on this race with every intention of winning. I have not spent one minute thinking about Plan B. I think now that I must begin to think about it, and all options are open, including perhaps that one.
QUESTION: Do you think you had enough time to campaign? And also, do you think that the Indian government campaigned hard enough for you?
THAROOR: No, no, I make absolutely no excuses. There are candidates in the race who had even less time than I did. And there are some who had more. And I’m not sure that some who had the most time necessarily benefited from that.
I think one has to put forward the best case one can. I believe I’ve done so. And as far as the government is concerned, I believe they did everything that they could. I have absolutely no complaints.
QUESTION: Sir, what do you think of the whole process, given that some people suggest the rules for electing a pope are more clear- cut than the secretary-general?
And also, could you just give us a sense of what qualities do you think Ban Ki-moon has?
THAROOR: Well, on the first part of the question, I think it’s important to understand that I have always been an outspoken advocate of greater transparency in this process. And I’d like to think that this year’s process has actually contributed to, at least relatively, an increase in transparency.
We had a number of developments that were encouraging, that are unprecedented. We had, first of all, the decision by the Security Council to convey, through the President of the General Assembly, to all the member-states their intention to hold a straw poll in July, inviting member-states to submit nominations. Candidates were officially encouraged by the presidency of the Security Council to present themselves through regional groups. I certainly took advantage of that opportunity. I believe many of the other candidates did so.
And I believe that this process of give-and-take was actually healthy for the organization. It was healthy for the candidates, because they had to reach into themselves to find answers to questions about the U.N. But, equally, it was healthy for the organization because a whole bunch of ambassadors — in fact, many of these regional group meetings were overwhelmingly attended by ambassadors — came and had a give-and-take with the candidates.
And, you know, in this kind of organization, normally the immediate and the urgent always trumps the important. In these exchanges, they were forced to think in-depth about the nature of the organization and its future direction and about what qualities they wanted to see at the helm of the secretariat.
I think all of these are healthy for the organization. I’d love to see the process expanded further. I certainly would have had no difficulty, for example, with public televised debates. As you know, an NGO tried to set these up without success. Not enough of the candidates were willing.
But I do believe that the more open and more public the process is, the healthier it is for the institution, because you would then get a secretary-general who has been tested through that process of transparency.
QUESTION: On Ban Ki-moon’s qualities?
THAROOR: I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on other people. You know, I stood on my own qualities. Mr. Ban has spoken very well, I think, for himself, and clearly more persuasively and successfully than I have.
QUESTION: Just one P-5 discouraging you; 10 encouraging. You needed only nine, but that one veto was bad enough.
So what went wrong? Did you lose the race, or did Mr. Ban win it?
THAROOR: Oh, I think Mr. Ban won it. Let’s give him credit for having done consistently well. In all fairness, he came first in all four straw ballots.
And I’m pleased that I came second and not worse than that in all four. But first is certainly better than second, and I’d like to give him full credit for that.
QUESTION: Do you think that the quota system that necessitated an Asian candidate this time should be translated also to nominations in the next administration, meaning that there should be, like, say, deputy secretary-general from the south or (inaudible) or whatever?
THAROOR: Well, look, I think that this organization has to have a certain amount of geographical balance in its positions for the obvious reason that there are 192 countries, each one of which has a legitimate stake in the ownership, the leadership and the direction of the United Nations.
And I think it is in the interests of the big powers to have the small powers feel engaged. It’s in the interest of each continent to feel that every other continent has a possibility. In my view, this question of balance is not something that is unhealthy for the organization.
As far as Asia is concerned, I think it was certainly an appropriate time for this youthful, dynamic, transformative, progressive continent to have an opportunity to serve at the helm of the secretariat.
But it’s also true to say that other continents will have their turns in the future. I mean, one could well argue that the positions at lower levels of the secretariat have traditionally, in any case, been distributed. You have seen, by and large, a pattern where it’s relatively rare for one country to have more than one under-secretary-generalship. There have been cases of two, but very, very few.
And so, that’s, again, normal. I mean, it’s part of ensuring that responsibility is shared widely and, as I said earlier, that every country feels it has a stake in this organization. To me, that’s fundamental.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)Will India get a USG (ph) position in next…
THAROOR: Well, at the moment, India is privileged to have two, so perhaps one will survive.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Where did your campaign fall short?
THAROOR: I don’t know that it fell short, to be quite honest, except in the vote tally. I mean, I think that we really have nothing to reproach ourselves for in terms of the message that was conveyed and the fairness with which we tried to reach out to everybody we could. And I speak both for myself here and the government, which has played its own part in trying to reach out.
At the end of the day, ultimately, the votes are the only thing that matter. And I don’t think that I have anyone to blame, anyone to reproach, not even myself. I think I did everything I could. If it was found wanting, well, there we are. That’s life. We move on.
QUESTION: Given the fact that in the United States the United Nations has sort of a negative position, this new secretary-general, how much of (inaudible) task it will be for him to correct that image of the United Nations?
Because if you turn around and see, every American doesn’t seem too happy with the United Nations. What is it, in your opinion, that it will take to turn that around?
THAROOR: I think that is a very important challenge for the new secretary-general because, clearly, we do need to bring about a certain amount of a change of attitude in elements in this society.
I think that the U.S. is indispensable to the U.N. I’ve not hesitated to say so in the past and during my campaign. And I think that includes U.S. public opinion.
This is a democracy. Its political leadership is accountable to the public. And, therefore, we do need to reach the public.
There is certainly a problem that, you know, some of the things we do don’t please everybody. And there’s also a problem that some of the things that are said about us, which get a wide hearing, are not always entirely accurate.
But the fact is, we have to go out and continue to do our job. And I do believe that the secretary-general of the United Nations has a great opportunity, through his own personality and the bully pulpit that this job offers, including the presence of all of you here and elsewhere, to make a difference.
And I will certainly wish Mr. Ban well in doing that. I do believe that’s an important challenge.
QUESTION: Have you called him, talked to him?
THAROOR: I don’t know what hour it is in Korea. I have written to him. But I would certainly be very happy to call him and express the congratulations personally. I didn’t want to be the one waking him up.
QUESTION: Did you send an e-mail to him?
THAROOR: No, no. I sent a faxed letter through the ambassador of the Korean permanent mission, which is the way we do things at the U.N.
Perhaps one last question?
QUESTION: In the September-October issue of Foreign Affairs, Sir Brian Urquhart refers to the selection process for the secretary- general as a “haphazard lottery.”
He says, “There’s still no formal procedure for searching for, nominating or vetting candidates, nor is there any provisions to interview candidates.” He adds, “It’s a fairly widespread view that the candidate should come from Asia.” But he also said, “That should not exclude any exceptional person from any region of the world.”
What do you think?
THAROOR: Oh, I agree with Sir Brian, who’s somebody I’ve had a lot of respect for and a lot of contact with over the years.
I certainly, as I mentioned in responding to the earlier question about transparency, I would be in favor of some of these additional elements coming in. I think, this year, we went further in that direction than in any previous years. So that’s been a good thing.
As far as other continents having a crack at it, we did have at least one candidate in these ballots who was from another continent. And I think it was healthy that she was also considered. I have no difficulty with that.
But, equally, I do believe that a certain amount of rotation is healthy for the organization. Three of the first four secretary- generals of the United Nations were all from Western Europe. And while we have high regard for Western Europe, I think it’s important that others also feel that they have as much of a chance of producing a secretary-general.
If Asia now has, through today’s ballot, been able to produce a secretary-general, I think that’s nothing for the rest of the world to be unhappy about.
I do believe that, once elected, the Asian secretary-general will not be Asia’s secretary-general but will be a secretary-general for the entire world.
Thank you all, and thank you for your interest in what I had to say. Good evening.