China set to decide if Costa Rican or Guyanese diplomat becomes first woman UN chief

China is poised to decide which of two Latin American women becomes the first to lead the United Nations, after three rounds of informal voting in the Security Council failed to produce a favourite.

Several UN delegations that spoke to the South China Morning Post over the past three days said Beijing was weighing Rebeca Grynspan, the Costa Rican economist who heads UN Trade and Development, and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s ambassador to the UN.

The same delegations said China had ruled out Rafael Grossi, the Argentine director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Grossi is widely seen as Washington’s preferred candidate and was nominated last year by Argentine President Javier Milei.

China has kept cordial but cooler relations with Milei since his 2023 presidential campaign, when he called the Chinese government “assassins” and promised to cut ties in favour of the “civilised side of life”.