President-elect of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has made two appointments to his team.

Shahid who won a resounding victory in the PGA elections on Monday has said that he planned to start work immediately, which includes forming a team.

He, via Twitter on Thursday, announced the appointment of Thilmeeza Hussain as the Special Envoy of the PGA and K Nagaraj Naidu as his Chef de Cabinet.

Thilmeeza is the Maldives Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States while Naidu is India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN.

Shahid noted that “they will be will be instrumental” in delivering his vision for the “presidency of hope”.

Following his win on Monday, Shahid said that it was an honour to have the opportunity “to serve for the betterment of [the] people, planet and prosperity”.

Noting that Maldives is “a small nation with few diplomats and fewer resources”, the foreign minister during his victory speech said that despite that Maldivians’ spirit has “always been strong, belief steadfast”.

He added that working “for a better tomorrow, hoping for a better tomorrow” is the Maldivian way, and that is what he will try to bring during his tenure as PGA, a presidency of hope.

While the new PGA will take office in September, Shahid said that his “ultimate objective is to strengthen multilateralism, enhance cooperation, make the UN deliver, an reign in a presidency of hope”.

With that being said, his first five main priorities are (as per order), recovering from Covid-19, rebuilding sustainably, responding to the needs of the planet, respecting the rights of all and revitalizing the United Nations.