UNGA President-elect Shahid to take oath on Wednesday

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid is to be sworn in as President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shahid will take his oath of office after the closing of the ongoing 75th session of the UNGA, scheduled to be held at 12am on Wednesday.

Shahid will be inaugurating the 76th session following the closing of the 75th session, during which he will be delivering his first presidential address.

Maldives won the UNGA presidential election in early June, with Shahid leading the votes with 143 out of 191 votes cast. FM Shahid competed against Afghanistan’s Zalmai Rassoul.

FM Shahid has the privilege of being the first ever candidate Maldives has presented for the UNGA presidency and he will be the sixth president from a Small Island Developing State to preside over the UNGA in UN’s history.

Shahid’s ultimate objective is to strengthen multilateralism, enhance cooperation, make the UN deliver, and reign in a “Presidency of Hope”, which revolves around five main priorities. Which are, as per order, continuing the recovery from Covid-19, build back better, stronger, bluer, and greener, responding to the needs of the planet, continuing to promote, protect human rights, address inequalities and injustice, and continue efforts to empower and reform the United Nations.

Maldives joined the UN on 21 September 1965 not long after gaining independence and has been an active member.

Serving as the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative organ of the UN, the United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the UN. The UNGA’s President (PGA) has the responsibility of chairing the UNGA session for their elected term and is also the presiding officer for this duration. In addition, the PGA represents the membership at conferences and other international as well as regional meetings and can co-host events with Member States and other partners.