H.E. President Dr. Khalilur Rahman

President of the 81st  Session of the United Nations General Assembly

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 UN 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 UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Over the course of 25 years he held senior positions in the UN in New York and Geneva. Dr. Rahman has published extensively on international trade policy, and has authored or contributed to several UN flagship publications, as well as numerous reports of the UN Secretary-General and the UNCTAD 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.