Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador Dennis Francis Elected UN General Assembly President

A general view shows voting results during a UN General Assembly meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Oct. 12, 2022. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador Dennis Francis has been elected to serve as president of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for its 78th session.

Francis, whose diplomatic career in the Caribbean nation spans nearly 40 years, has been the permanent representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations since September 2021.

He was elected as president by acclamation during a ceremony at the U.N. headquarters in New York on June 1 and will take the helm of the United Nations’ main policy-making body in September.

Later in September, he will preside over the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.

It marks the first time that a nominee from Trinidad and Tobago has been elected UNGA president, according to the Trinidad Express.

“My heart is truly full, even as I remain keenly aware that being called to serve as President of the General Assembly of the United Nations constitutes a weighty responsibility,” Francis said in a statement.

The general assembly consists of all 193 U.N. member states and works to advance international peace as well as tackle global issues like poverty, hunger and inequality, access to education, and climate change.

It often makes resolutions—declarations voted on by all member states—which are not legally binding but carry a moral weight and pertain to issues such as world peace.

In the past, the general assembly has adopted resolutions calling for Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine due to the ongoing invasion and called for Russian troops to immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

Other resolutions have included condemning the Taliban’s ban on women working for the organization.

Francis succeeds Csaba Korosi, a Hungarian diplomat in the role of UNGA president.

Korosi, who still has 100 days remaining until he steps down as head, congratulated Francis in a statement on June 1, adding that with “his extensive experience & his unique perspective coming from a Small Island Developing State, I am confident that the UNGA will be in capable hands.”

Elsewhere, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that Francis’s tenure comes during a “deeply challenging moment” for humanity amid global conflicts including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escalating poverty, a volatile financial system, and sustainable development goals—also known as the “global goals”—that are “slipping out of reach.”

Those goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as part of a call to action to ensure global peace and prosperity by 2030.

“Across all of these issues, the world looks to this Assembly to unite Member States around common solutions,” Guterres said. “President-elect Francis brings a wide range of skills, experience, and knowledge to this essential task.”

‘Common Cause in Finding Consensus’

After his appointment, Francis said he plans to prioritize “encouraging and facilitating meaningful dialogue” in his role as president.

“It is my hope to bring forward, with your help and support, a renewed atmosphere of conciliation, cooperation, and shared commitment in addressing the many challenges and seizing every opportunity, however nascent, before the General Assembly,” he said.

“I will seek to enhance current approaches and adopt new ones with probable solutions, as we endeavor to deliver or at least to strengthen the bases for delivering Peace, Prosperity, Progress, and Sustainability,” he added.

Asked how the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine will factor into the upcoming UNGA session in September, Francis told The Associated Press: “I believe that the will exists, and the capacity exists, to think and act globally beyond the limits of the war, and that will be something that I’ll be seeking to encourage in various ways so that we can make common cause in finding consensus, or, if not consensus, at least compromise.”

Francis was an ambassador in his country for 18 years until his compulsory retirement in 2016, making him the Caribbean country’s longest-serving ambassador.

He previously served as Trinidad and Tobago’s principal representative in Jamaica and Geneva and senior adviser to the minister of foreign affairs on matters such as climate change.