SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica put forward Wednesday longtime diplomat and former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as a candidate to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
The economist is currently the secretary-general of U.N. Trade and Development in Geneva.
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Former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan gives a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco, left, and former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan shake hands in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
Former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan gives a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
FILE - Ibero-American Secretary Rebeca Grynspan speaks during a closer press conference of the XXVI Ibero-American Summit in Antigua, Guatemala, Nov. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros, File)
She was a major player in the U.N. effort to ship Ukrainian and Russian grains to global markets at the start of the war in Ukraine and outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres designated her as the senior U.N. official to deal with the Russians.
“This candidacy will be formally registered at the United Nations in the coming weeks,” Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves said in a video message Wednesday. “We trust that the career and commitment of Rebeca Grynspan, who has very broad experience in issues of development, international cooperation and regional leadership, will significantly contribute to strengthening multilateralism.”
Speaking at a news conference in San Jose on Wednesday, Grynspan said she would campaign for the position, capitalizing on being well known in diplomatic circles. She also acknowledged that there would be competition for the position, including from within Latin America.
“I know the United Nations well, I know it well enough to reform it and well enough to defend it,” Grynspan said. “The United Nations requires both things. Right now, being a multilateralist means being a reformer.”
Grynspan served as Costa Rica’s vice president in the administration of ex-President José María Figueres (1994-1998) and later worked in various multilateral organizations.
Guterres' term ends Dec. 31, 2026, and the process to replace him will run through the final quarter of 2026. Changes have been made in recent years to make the selection process more transparent, including public discussions with the candidates and a series of straw polls to measure support before a formal resolution. Previously the selection process was opaque and dominated by the Security Council.
Former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan gives a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco, left, and former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan shake hands in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
Former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan gives a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Diaz)
FILE - Ibero-American Secretary Rebeca Grynspan speaks during a closer press conference of the XXVI Ibero-American Summit in Antigua, Guatemala, Nov. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “hasn’t read” a U.S-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump was critical of Zelenskyy after U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it. But he hasn’t — Russia’s fine with it,” Trump told reporters on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favored Moscow.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayer money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly four-year conflict he says has cost far too many lives.
Zelenskyy said Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.
“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement.”
The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service. It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.
As the three days of talks wrapped up, Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
This story was first published on Dec. 7, 2025. It was updated on Dec. 8, 2025 to correct that Trump said Zelenskyy hadn’t read the latest proposal, rather than that he wasn’t ready to accept it.
AP writers Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed reporting.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
President Donald Trump talks to the media while walking the red carpet before the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a Kyrgyzstan-Russia talk at the Administrative complex Yntymak-Manas Ordo, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Nov. 26, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier tests land drones in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
