Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman returns home

Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman returned to Bangladesh after being elected president of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday (June 4).

Khalilur Rahman secured 99 votes in the election, defeating Andreas S Kakouris, special envoy to the foreign minister of Cyprus, who received 91 votes. Representatives of the UN’s 193 member states took part in the voting held at the UN headquarters in New York on June 2.

Bangladesh had conducted an intensive diplomatic campaign over the past three months in support of Khalilur Rahman’s candidacy for the prestigious international post.

Khalilur Rahman will serve as president of the UN General Assembly for a one-year term, succeeding Annalena Baerbock.

His election marks only the second time a Bangladeshi representative has been chosen to lead the General Assembly. Forty years ago, in 1986, former Bangladeshi foreign secretary and politician Humayun Rashid Choudhury served as president of the 41st session of the UN General Assembly.