President of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly
H.E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák
On 31 May 2017, the General Assembly of the United Nations elected H. E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák of Slovakia as President of its seventy-second session, which spans from September 2017 to September 2018. At the time of his election,
Mr. Lajčák was serving his third term as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, a position he held since April 2012. From April 2012 to March 2016, Mr. Lajčák also served as Deputy Prime Minister of his country.
Mr. Lajčák has dedicated his professional life to diplomatic service, representing both the Slovak Republic and the international community on posts in Brussels, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
He joined the foreign service of the then Czechoslovakia in 1988 and was posted in Moscow from 1991 to 1993, initially as an assistant to the Ambassador of Czechoslovakia, and from 1993, after Czechoslovakia peacefully split, in the same position at the newly formed Slovak Embassy there.
Upon his return to Slovakia in 1993, Mr. Lajčák played a vital role in the transformation of his young country. He actively helped to build and shape the Slovak national foreign service as Director of the Cabinet of the Foreign Minister
of the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia.
In 1994, at the age of 31, Mr. Lajčák was appointed as the Slovak Ambassador to Japan, thus becoming the youngest-ever head of a diplomatic mission of Slovakia as well as the youngest foreign ambassador serving in Japan. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Lajčák served as the Executive Assistant to the United Nations Secretary-General´s Special Envoy for the Balkans, Eduard Kukan.
Following his tenure as Slovak Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 2001 and 2005 Mr. Lajčák served as Political Director at the Foreign Ministry of the Slovak Republic from 2005 to 2007.
A key figure in the mediation of the post-conflict crises in the Western Balkans, Mr. Lajčák negotiated, organised and supervised the referendum on the independence of Montenegro in 2006 on behalf of the European Union High Representative for Common and Security Policy, Javier Solana.
In 2007, Mr. Lajčák was appointed High Representative of the International Community and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his tenure, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the landmark Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union. From 2009 to July 2010, Mr. Lajčák served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic.
From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Lajčák helped shape the newly formed diplomatic service of the European Union, the European External Action Service, as its Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia. In addition, he also served as the EU´s Chief Negotiator for the Association Agreements of the EU with Ukraine and Moldova, as well as the EU Representative for the “5+2 Talks” on the Transnistrian Settlement Process.
Mr. Lajčák is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and has a law degree from the Comenius University in Bratislava.
He is married and has two daughters.