Key Facts
Biography
H.E. Dr. Khalilur Rahman, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, was elected President of the eighty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly in June 2026.
Prior to his appointment as Foreign Minister in February 2026, he served as the National Security Adviser and High Representative for Rohingya Affairs in the interim Government of Bangladesh.
Dr. Rahman joined the diplomatic service of Bangladesh in 1979 upon securing the first position in the first regular civil service examinations of the country. He served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York. He represented Bangladesh at the Economic and Financial Committee of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly and acted as the spokesperson of the Group of Least Developed Countries.
Dr. Rahman joined the United Nations in 1991, serving as Special Adviser at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Conference on Trade and Development (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵCTAD) in Geneva. Over the course of 25 years he held senior positions in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ in New York and Geneva.
Dr. Rahman has published extensively on international trade policy, and has authored or contributed to several Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ flagship publications, as well as numerous reports of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵCTAD Secretary-General, on issues of trade, finance and development.
Dr. Rahman studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University during 1980-83, and earned the degrees of MA in Law and Diplomacy and PhD in Economics. In 1977, he stood first in the first class in MA examinations in Economics at the Dhaka University.
Dr. Rahman is a founder of the East West University in Dhaka and has served on its Board of Trustees.
I will be the President of all of you. I will engage all Member States in the course of my work.
H.E. Dr. Khalilur Rahman
Acceptance speech, 2 June 2026
In His Own Words
Three commitments from his address to the General Assembly on the day of his election.
As your President, I will dedicate myself to rebuilding trust, nurturing consensus, and opening space for good faith negotiations that will lead to outcomes for all that are owned by all.
Acceptance speech, 2 June 2026
I will seek common ground without ignoring differences.
Acceptance speech, 2 June 2026
I don’t consider the work of the President as a one-off event, but as a continuum.
Acceptance speech, 2 June 2026
Documents
The vision statement sets out the six pillars of the President’s programme for the eighty-first session, and is available in the six official languages of the United Nations and in Portuguese. His acceptance speech was delivered on 2 June 2026.