Peter Thomson assumes UN Assembly presidency

Ambassador Peter Thomson of the Republic of Fiji has been inaugurated as the President of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Thomson succeeded Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark to lead the plenary session of the 193 UN member states. He was elected president of the 71st UNGA session on June 13. At […]

Ambassador Peter Thomson of the Republic of Fiji has been inaugurated as the President of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Thomson succeeded Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark to lead the plenary session of the 193 UN member states.
He was elected president of the 71st UNGA session on June 13. At the time of his election, he served as Fiji’s permanent representative to the UN, a post he held since February 2010.
The one-year presidency of the UNGA rotates between geographic areas, with the 71st session being the turn of the Asian-Pacific region. Thomson beat his competitor Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus in the election.
During his posting as Fiji’s permanent representative, Thomson once chaired the UN’s largest negotiating bloc, Group of 77 and China. In addition, he was a vice president of the UNGA from 2010 to 2011.
Born in Suva, Fiji in 1948, Thomson has had a lifelong involvement in the field of development. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political studies at Auckland University and a postgraduate diploma in development studies at Cambridge University.
“We will strive to find new methods to sustain peace and resolve entrenched conflicts, diminish the atrocities of global terrorism, better manage migrant and refugee flows and resolve the many humanitarian crises that remind us of the millions of people in our world who are still denied basic conditions for a secure life,” Thomson said as he opened the new session and took an oath of office in New York.