New York was in one of its kinder June moods on Tuesday, as delegates gathered under the high ceiling of the General Assembly hall and the familiar wooden gavel waited on a table to be claimed.

When the vote was announced – 99 for Bangladesh’s Khalilur Rahman, 91 for Cyprus’s Andreas Kakouris- the General Assembly hall answered with a roaring applause as Rahman’s hands rose in prayer. But the arithmetic told its own story. A narrow margin carried the first clue to the politics of the year ahead.

That is why his first words mattered. Rahman did not speak as though he had been handed a ceremonial ornament. He warned that the 81st session would open at “a historic crossroads,” with “trust in our organisation” being tested on multiple fronts. Conflict and war, he said, were inflicting “untold suffering,” development gains were fragile or regressing, rights were backsliding, and humanitarian space was shrinking. “This is a challenge I will confront together with all of you,” he told the Assembly. Secretary-General António Guterres, congratulating him, called Rahman’s theme – “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All” – an “inspiring call to action” for the multilateral system.

Dhaka’s pride is understandable. Rahman is only the second Bangladeshi to hold the presidency of the General Assembly since Humayun Rasheed Choudhury chaired the 41st session in 1986. Yet the significance of this election lies more in the circumstances under which he will take the gavel.

The presidency of the General Assembly is often dismissed as ceremonial. That is partly true. Partly. Yes, the General Assembly has no veto and cannot order armies into or out of conflicts. Its resolutions are formally non-binding. Still, it sets the UN’s budget, admits new members, elects non-permanent members to the Security Council, adopts treaties, and convenes the only annual gathering of heads of state and government. It is also the chamber where smaller states can still count, speak and organise when the Council is blocked by........

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