Jan Eliasson is a Swedish and international diplomat. He was the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN from 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2016. He was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly, for its sixtieth session 2005-2006. Eliasson was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2000 and Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2006.

In the UN he has been mediator in the Iran/Iraq conflict, in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and in Darfur Sudan, and active for the UN in countries such as Somalia, Mozambique and the Balkans. He has an interest in water issues, in particular for the developing world, and was the first chairman of WaterAid, Sweden.

In March 2017 Eliasson was awarded the Illis Quorum Meruere Labores medal by the Swedish Government honouring his distinguished career internationally and as representative of Sweden and the United Nations.

In June 2017 he was appointed as the new chairman of the SIPRI Governing Board.