Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman elected president of 81st UN General Assembly

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 02 (APP): Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, was elected President of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, set to start this September.

 He secured the victory in a vote held in UN Genetral Assembly, defeating Cyprus’s candidate Ambassador Andreas S. Kakouris by a margin of 99 to 91 votes. One hundred and ninety ballots were cast.

Rahman will officially assume his duties in September 2026.  His election marks a significant milestone for Bangladesh, as he becomes the second Bangladeshi diplomat to hold the presidency, following Humayun Rasheed Choudhury’s tenure in 1986.

Former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the current General Assembly president, “warmly” congratulated Rahman over his election.

Pledging to work together until Rahman takes office, she said: “The role of the president of the General Assembly is no longer simply procedural, reading out notes, because even in the procedural rules themselves, they are being challenged, as we have experienced many times before.”

Noting that the 81st session will not become “any easier over the next three months,” Baerbock stressed that Rahman is “more than prepared” for the position, adding that “your decade of diplomatic and multilateral experience will serve you well during what promises to be a particularly consequential 81st session as your work to build a more effective, responsive, and trusted multilateral system.”

In his remarks, Rahman pointed to the challenges that the UN is facing, saying that it is “being tested on multiple fronts, scourges of conflict and war, from which our organization aimed to save our succeeding generations, continue to inflict untold sufferings.”

“Taken together, these challenges tend to undermine the public trust and confidence in the ability of our organization to deliver its promises, and this is a challenge that I will confront together with all of you,” he said.

He vowed to take “a holistic approach to peacekeeping and peace building that prioritizes prevention and political solution, strengthens peace building, and protects civilians.”

“I will support dialogue to make even peacekeeping more fit for purpose and advocate for greater representation of women in peacekeeping,” he said, further pledging to be “mindful of achieving gender equality and full and meaningful participation of women and girls in all walks of life.”