Who is Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh FM who beat Cyprus to UNGA presidency?

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman has been elected arsenic the 81st president of the 193-member United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). He volition presume bureau erstwhile the UNGA league opens successful September.

Rahman, who earlier held respective portfolios astatine the UN, won the presidency aft defeating Cyprus’s Ambassador Andreas Kakouris successful a intimately contested vote, taking the helm of the world’s astir typical diplomatic assemblage during a clip of planetary geopolitical turmoil.

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Who is Khalilur Rahman?

A vocation diplomat, Rahman joined Bangladesh’s overseas work successful 1979. He besides held elder UN positions successful New York and Geneva, including arsenic the spokesperson for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and arsenic peculiar advisor to the UN Conference connected Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Between 1986 and 1991, helium served arsenic the archetypal caput astatine the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN.

Rahman became overseas curate successful February, erstwhile the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won the country’s first election since a student-led uprising ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina successful 2024.

He antecedently served arsenic nationalist information advisor and the precocious typical connected the Rohingya contented successful the interim authorities led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Rahman’s presidency volition coincide with 1 of the astir consequential processes connected the UN calendar – the enactment of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s successor – arsenic his word expires astatine the extremity of this year.

“The UN volition commence its ninth decennary astatine a clip erstwhile spot successful our organisation is being tested connected aggregate fronts,” helium told diplomats assembled astatine the UNGA arsenic helium accepted the caller role. “Taken together, these challenges thin to undermine the nationalist spot and assurance successful the quality of our organisation to present its promises.”

Guterres congratulated Rahman, saying, “Your singular governmental and diplomatic acquisition are a warrant of occurrence not lone to the General Assembly but to the United Nations arsenic a whole.”

How is the UNGA president selected?

While the presidency of the UNGA is mostly ceremonial, it is besides prestigious. It is the UN organ wherever countries ample and tiny tin speak, and it is the country of the world’s largest yearly diplomatic gathering.

The UNGA president is usually chosen by acclamation, meaning subordinate states hold connected a campaigner by wide consensus. If nary statement tin beryllium reached, a concealed ballot is held; successful that uncommon case, the campaigner who wins a elemental bulk of votes becomes president.

Before this year, the past contested UNGA statesmanlike predetermination was successful 2016, erstwhile Fijian diplomat Peter Thomson won the presidency of the 71st league successful a concealed ballot, defeating Cyprus’s campaigner by 4 votes. In 2012, Serbia’s Vuk Jeremic narrowly bushed Lithuania’s campaigner successful different concealed ballot. In 1991, Saudi Arabia’s candidate, Samir Shihabi, won the presidency successful a contested ballot against candidates from Yemen and Papua New Guinea.

In the concealed ballot, Rahman secured 99 votes, 8 much than his rival Kakouris. A full of 190 ballots were cast, with nary invalid votes oregon abstentions.

The presidency rotates among the UN’s 5 determination groups, and the 81st league falls to the Asia Pacific group. Rahman volition service a one-year word starting connected September 8, the UN said.

Outgoing UNGA President Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s overseas minister, highlighted however spot towards multilateralism is nether increasing strain.

The UN is facing “not lone headwinds, but immense pressure”, with statement progressively hard to execute and defence of the UN Charter becoming “a regular necessity”.

“The relation of the president of the General Assembly is nary longer simply procedural,” she said.

The US medication nether President Donald Trump has tried to undermine the UN system, resorting to unilateral actions to tackle analyzable planetary geopolitical issues. Washington has withdrawn from respective UN organisations, specified arsenic the World Health Organization and the Human Rights Council, and chopped backing to the planetary body.

The US president has called the UN a “talking shop”, questioning its intent during his code astatine the yearly UNGA gathering past September. “The UN has specified tremendous imaginable … but it’s not adjacent coming adjacent to surviving up to that potential,” helium said.

What is the UNGA?

The General Assembly is the UN’s astir typical body, bringing unneurotic each 193 subordinate states, each with 1 vote. Its yearly gathering successful September successful New York is the lone UN forum wherever satellite leaders from each countries tin speak.

The UNGA controls the UN budget, adopts treaties, addresses planetary issues from poorness to corruption and passes galore resolutions that, portion not legally binding, astir ever bespeak planetary opinion.

The UNGA besides makes cardinal decisions for the UN, including appointing the secretary-general connected the proposal of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and electing the nonpermanent members of the council.

The coming UNGA league volition unfastened connected September 8.

On Wednesday, the UNGA elected Austria, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe to the 15-member UNSC for two-year presumption starting connected January 1, 2027.

Germany, which had lobbied hard for a seat, failed to triumph the UNSC spot successful a large setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The assembly is the lone UN assemblage that tin marque legally binding decisions, specified arsenic imposing sanctions and authorising the usage of force. It has 5 imperishable veto-wielding members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.