Annalena Baerbock hands over the presidency of the UN General Assembly

After a year, Annalena Baerbock has relinquished the presidency of the UN General Assembly as scheduled. In New York, she symbolically handed over the ceremonial gavel to her successor, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman. He will now chair the General Assembly of the 193 UN member states for a year.

In her farewell speech, the Green Party politician said she was leaving the United Nations "with mixed feelings." Almost 81 years after its founding, no country in the world would be in a better position today if the UN did not exist, said Baerbock, referring to "all those out there who claim that the UN is irrelevant or would fail." At the same time, there is an urgent need for reform in the organization.