President

On 2 June 2026, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman was elected to the position of President of the General Assembly, defeating Cyprus's Special Envoy for Multilateralism, Ambassador Andreas S. Kakouris.^[3][4] The election was conducted under Rule 30 of the Rules of Procedure in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.^[5] The result was announced by outgoing President Annalena Baerbock in the presence of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.^[6] With his election, Bangladesh holds the UNGA presidency for the second time, the first being in 1986–87 when Humayun Rashid Choudhury served as President of the 41st session.^[7]

General debate

The high-level General Debate of the 81st session is scheduled to open on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, continuing through Saturday, 26 September, and concluding on Monday, 28 September 2026.^[8]

Each member of the General Assembly will have a representative speaking about issues concerning their country and the hopes for the coming year as to what the UNGA will do. This is an opportunity for the member states to opine on international issues of their concern.

The order of speakers is given first to member states, then observer states and supranational bodies. Any other observer entities will have a chance to speak at the end of the debate, if they so choose. Speakers will be put on the list in the order of their request, with special consideration for ministers and other government officials of similar or higher rank. According to the rules in place for the General Debate, the statements should be in one of the United Nations official languages of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish, and will be translated by the United Nations translators. Each speaker is requested to provide 350 advance copies of their statements to the conference officers to facilitate translation and to be presented at the podium.^[9]

Notes

Citations