Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman sees no complication in remaining foreign minister after being elected president of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), saying there is past precedent for holding the UNGA presidency and a country’s foreign-minister post at the same time.
Answering a reporter’s question at the foreign ministry on Thursday, Khalilur Rahman said: “Will I leave the job, will I take leave — that’s the question? Don’t be so anxious; there is precedent for this.”
Citing an example from four decades ago, he said: “Forty years ago our former foreign minister, Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, was elected president of the UN General Assembly. I was his personal secretary then. He carried out both responsibilities successfully. That was the pre-internet era; with today’s technology, doing both jobs at once is even easier.”
Khalilur Rahman won the UN General Assembly presidency on Tuesday, defeating the candidate from Cyprus. Since the election, debate has swirled over whether he will stay on as foreign minister or resign or take leave to serve as president.
At an informal exchange at UN headquarters in New York on 13 May, however, he had said that if elected he would serve as a neutral, full-time president for all, while hinting he might take a year’s leave if needed.
“Will I resign? No. My prime minister [Tarique Rahman] has told me clearly that he will give me a year to serve full time. Resignation is not the only path — I can also take leave,” he had said.
Repeating that on Thursday, Khalilur Rahman said the matter had already been clearly explained. Noting that many were citing the German example, he said the German official who became General Assembly president had indeed been foreign minister, but could not stay in the ministerial post after his party lost its election — a different situation.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report