UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives has won election as the next president of the U.N. General Assembly. He pledged to push for equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, a stronger and greener economic recovery, and stepped up efforts to tackle climate change. Shahid defeated Afghanistan’s former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul 143-48 in a secret ballot vote Monday. Turkey’s Volkan Bozkir, the current assembly president, said Shahid brings to the job “extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy,” serving his Indian Ocean island nation twice as foreign minister. Shahid will take over the presidency for a year in September.
