Published : 09 Sep 2026, 05:47 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:48 AM
Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman takes the oath of office and assumes the presidency of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at UN Headquarters on Tuesday morning, local time.
With this, a Bangladeshi representative occupied the General Assembly presidency for the first time in four decades.
Annalena Baerbock of Germany, president of the 80th session, congratulated the incoming president, Khalil.
Khalilur Rahman was elected president of the UN General Assembly on 2 June, defeating Andreas S. Kakouris, special envoy of Cyprus's foreign minister.
Forty years earlier, in 1986, Bangladesh's former foreign secretary and politician Humayun Rashid Choudhury had served as president of the General Assembly's 41st session, when Khalilur worked as his personal aide.
The presidency for this session went to the Asia-Pacific region under the UN's system of regional rotation.
Muhammad Yunus's interim government had initially put forward the then foreign affairs adviser, Touhid Hossain, as its candidate.
Since a Palestinian candidate was also contesting the same post, Bangladesh kept its bid suspended before Palestine withdrew its own candidacy.
Amid a change in government, Khalilur Rahman, foreign minister, replaced Touhid Hossain as Bangladesh's nominee. He went on to win the post after just three months of campaigning.
Khalil joined the foreign ministry after topping the first regular BCS examination in 1977, and went on to spend much of his career at UN agencies.
