RIGA — Latvia assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, November 1, holding the position for one month and presiding over the Council's formal meetings and informal consultations. It is the first time in history that Latvia has chaired the body, a milestone the country has been working towards since it submitted its candidacy in 2011, Latvia's Foreign Ministry said.

Source: Latvian Foreign Ministry (mfa.gov.lv)

Latvia was elected to the Security Council for the 2026–2027 term on June 3, 2025, receiving 178 votes out of the 188 UN member states that took part — well above the two-thirds majority of 129 votes required. Its UN ambassador, Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes, has said the presidency is the moment when the presiding country's role in the Council is most visible, and that Riga intends to use its signature events to advance its own priorities, Ukrinform reported, citing The Baltic Times.

Source: Ukrinform via The Baltic Times, Oct 31

1 monthLength of Latvia's presidency of the UN Security Council, for November 2026
178 of 188Votes Latvia received when it was elected to the Council in June 2025, its first election in history
16Official Security Council meetings on Ukraine that Latvia and its European partners have initiated this year

Ukraine first, and no ‘normalising’ aggression

Latvia's stated main goal on the Council is to strengthen its own security through active support for Ukraine and by preventing the normalisation of Russian aggression. Riga is working to ensure that Russia's war against Ukraine remains one of the key issues on the Council's agenda; this year alone, Latvia together with its European partners initiated 16 official Security Council meetings dedicated to Ukraine, almost all of them convened at Ukraine's request. Latvia's wider priorities, set out by its Foreign Ministry, are to protect the rules-based international order under the UN Charter, including achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, exposing Russia's crimes and countering disinformation, alongside the Women, Peace and Security agenda and new security challenges such as hybrid threats, cyberattacks and the security risks of artificial intelligence.

The presidency is largely procedural, but it is not powerless: about 90 percent of the Council's agenda is made up of cyclical, mandatory and regular meetings, yet the presiding country can add one or two meetings of its own to highlight a topic that matters to it — and, as diplomats note, in the Security Council even procedural questions can be deeply political. Latvia's month follows a run of European presidencies by Denmark, France and Greece. When November ends, Liberia will assume the presidency in December — the same Liberia whose own first-in-decades Council role this site has reported on. What to watch is whether Riga's signature meetings produce any Council action on Ukraine, or whether Russia's veto keeps the month to statements and agenda-setting.