Bangladesh Wins Presidency of 81st UN General Assembly
Khalilur Rahman defeated Cyprus's candidate 99 to 91 and takes a one-year term leading the UN General Assembly as it picks a successor to Guterres.
- Khalilur Rahman was elected president of the 81st UN General Assembly session by secret ballot on June 2.
- He defeated Cyprus's candidate Andreas Kakouris by 99 votes to 91.
- His term begins September 8 and runs for one year.
- The presidency coincides with the election of a successor to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
A post that looks remote from Belgrade carries direct weight for any country whose fate runs through the New York hall, and Serbia is among them because the question of Kosovo has for decades been argued on exactly this multilateral terrain. Khalilur Rahman, the foreign minister of Bangladesh, was elected on June 2 as president of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, taking over an institution whose authority is being questioned on several fronts.
The vote was held by secret ballot, itself a rare departure from the long-standing practice of choosing the president by acclamation with a single agreed candidate. Rahman defeated Andreas Kakouris of Cyprus by 99 votes to 91, out of 190 valid ballots, with no invalid or abstaining votes. His term begins September 8, 2026 and runs for one year.
Why was a vote needed at all?
The General Assembly presidency rotates among five regional groups, and this time the turn fell to the Asia-Pacific group. When two states from the same group compete for the same post, the customary deal collapses and the decision passes to a secret ballot of all member states. That is precisely what happened between Bangladesh and Cyprus, so the Assembly had to count ballots rather than confirm a candidate by consensus.
Rahman’s record explains why his candidacy carried weight. He has been a career diplomat since 1979 and took charge of Bangladesh’s foreign service in February 2026. Behind him stand decades of work in multilateral bodies, practically a prerequisite for the role, which requires steering debates among 193 member states with frequently opposing interests.
- The Assembly president chairs plenary sessions and sets the agenda of the session.
- The post rotates among five regional groups in a fixed sequence.
- The term lasts exactly one year, from September to September.
“The UN enters its ninth decade at a moment when trust in our organisation is being tested on several fronts,” Khalilur Rahman said.
What does this term mean for the year ahead?
The timing matters by no accident. The presidency of the 81st session coincides with the election of a successor to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose mandate expires on December 31, 2026. The General Assembly formally appoints the secretary-general on the recommendation of the Security Council, so Rahman will preside over the body that makes one of the most consequential personnel decisions in the UN system.
The news also lands on the same day the General Assembly elected new non-permanent members of the Security Council, together sketching an institution in the middle of renewing its own leadership. For countries like Serbia, whose central foreign-policy questions are settled in New York chambers, every change at the top of the Assembly and the Security Council means a new configuration of votes and a new interlocutor.
Will the UN’s new leadership manage to restore the trust that Rahman openly admits has been shaken?
