Hungarian elected President of the UN General Assembly

Photo: MTI/AP/ENSZ/Manuel Elías

The presidency of the UN General Assembly is an honour first and foremost for Hungary, said Csaba Kőrösi, the President-elect of the General Assembly on Tuesday, in an interview with M1 News.

Hungarian President at the UN

On Tuesday afternoon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó informed MTI that the UN General Assembly elected the president for its 77th session, by acclamation in New York. From September, Csaba Kőrösi will be President of the UN General Assembly for one year.

Csaba Kőrösi told M1 that the position is also a special honour and a challenge for him, writes hellomagyar.hu. The UN General Assembly is the highest forum of the UN, whose main task is to determine “the direction in which the world should go”.

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He added that this mandate is particularly important because the current crisis is of a complexity that has not been seen in the last forty years.

The new president is expected to play an important role in shaping world politics and global market developments, he said on the M1 news programme.

From 2010 to 2014, Csaba Kőrösi served as Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of Hungary to the United Nations in New York and then headed the Environmental Sustainability Directorate of the Office of the President of the Republic.

The regular session of the UN General Assembly begins in September each year. At least three months before the beginning of the regular session, the president, 21 vice-presidents and the chairpersons of the six main committees of the Assembly are elected.

Important tasks ahead

The Assembly has been chaired for the past year by Volkan Bozkir from Turkey.

The duties of the President of the UNGA include opening, closing and presiding over the sessions of the Assembly.

The President proposes a theme for the general debate in September, and may also convene informal thematic meetings to hear from experts, discuss new topics or review controversial issues. He may also convene and chair high-level meetings (with the heads of state, heads of government or ministers) on the basis of specific Assembly decisions.

In the history of the UN, the Assembly has had only one Hungarian president. In 1982-83, Imre Hollai, then Deputy Foreign Minister, held this position, writes portfolio.hu.