List of heads of state by diplomatic precedence

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International protocol holds that a head of state takes precedence over all other officials, and that heads of state rank in the order that they took office. The following list contains the heads of state for all United Nations member states and non-member observer states. (Entities conducting official diplomatic relations with other states excluded from this list are: the Republic of China (Taiwan), the State of Palestine and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.)

The King of Thailand holds the distinction of being the longest-serving head of state and consequently precedes all dignitaries in the world.

Queen Elizabeth II is represented in each of her Commonwealth Realms by a Governor-General. Governors-General are not heads of state, but are frequently accorded the status and privileges of a head of state at diplomatic events when considered to represent the British Monarch. They are included in the list and are highlighted in blue.

• However, in many cases it is not this 'neutral' principle but national rules of protocol that are acted upon, usually by an international event's host nation, as in many bilateral and even certain multilateral occasions. Various international organisations have a system for internal use. Even in the presence of one or more heads of state, certain occasions are governed by specific protocol, e.g. military. Thus in many cases precedence is given to Monarchs over republican Heads of State (especially in monarchies); in some (especially Catholic) nations His Holiness the Pope (himself a head of state) ranks above secular heads of state.

Title	Name	Head of State since	Country
King	Bhumibol Adulyadej	9 June 1946	Thailand
Queen	Elizabeth II	6 February 1952	Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, United Kingdom
O le Ao o le Malo	Malietoa Tanumafili II	5 April 1963	Samoa
Sultan	Sir Hassanal Bolkiah	4 October 1967	Brunei
President	Omar Bongo	28 November 1967	Gabon
Sultan	Qaboos ibn Sa’id	23 July 1970	Oman
Queen	Margrethe II	14 January 1972	Denmark
King	Jigme Singye Wangchuck	21 July 1972	Bhutan
King	Carl XVI Gustaf	15 September 1973	Sweden
King	Juan Carlos I	22 November 1975	Spain
President	Fidel Castro	3 December 1976	Cuba
President	Maumoon Abdul Gayoom	11 November 1978	Maldives
President	Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo	3 August 1979	Equatorial Guinea
President	José Eduardo dos Santos	10 September 1979	Angola
Queen	Beatrix	30 April 1980	Netherlands
President	Hosni Mubarak	14 October 1981	Egypt
President	Paul Biya	6 November 1982	Cameroon
President	Lansana Conté	3 April 1984	Guinea
President	Yoweri Museveni	26 January 1986	Uganda
King	Mswati III	25 April 1986	Swaziland
President	Blaise Compaoré	15 October 1987	Burkina Faso
President	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali	7 November 1987	Tunisia
President	Robert Mugabe	31 December 1987	Zimbabwe
Emperor	Akihito	7 January 1989	Japan
Supreme Leader	Ali Khamenei	4 June 1989	Iran
President	Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir	30 June 1989	Sudan
Prince	Hans-Adam II	13 November 1989	Liechtenstein
President	Islom Karimov	24 March 1990	Uzbekistan
President	Nursultan Nazarbayev	24 April 1990	Kazakhstan
President	Ali Abdullah Saleh	22 May 1990	Yemen
President	Saparmurat Niyazov	27 October 1990	Turkmenistan
President	Idriss Déby Itno	2 December 1990	Chad
King	Harald V	17 January 1991	Norway
Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council	Than Shwe	23 April 1992	Myanmar
General secretary of the General People's Congress	Zentani Muhammad az-Zentani	18 November 1992	Libya
President	Emomali Rahmonov	20 November 1992	Tajikistan
President	Isaias Afewerki	24 May 1993	Eritrea
Governor-General	Sir James Carlisle	10 June 1993	Antigua and Barbuda
King	Albert II	9 August 1993	Belgium
Governor-General	Sir Colville Young	17 November 1993	Belize
President	Alexander Lukashenko	20 July 1994	Belarus
President	Yahya Jammeh	22 July 1994	The Gambia
President	Jacques Chirac	17 May 1995	France (also Co-Prince of Andorra)
Emir	Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani	27 June 1995	Qatar
Governor-General	Sir Cuthbert Sebastian	1 January 1996	Saint Kitts and Nevis
King (and Paramount chief)	Letsie III	7 February 1996	Lesotho
Governor-General	Sir Clifford Husbands	1 June 1996	Barbados
President	Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson	1 August 1996	Iceland
Governor-General	Sir Daniel Williams	8 August 1996	Grenada
Governor-General	Dame Pearlette Louisy	17 September 1997	Saint Lucia
President	Denis Sassou Nguesso	25 October 1997	Republic of the Congo
President	Mary McAleese	11 November 1997	Ireland
President	Robert Kocharian	4 February 1998	Armenia
President	Ahmad Tejan Kabbah	10 March 1998	Sierra Leone
President	Festus Mogae	1 April 1998	Botswana
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly	Kim Yongnam[1]	5 September 1998	North Korea
President	Émile Lahoud	24 November 1998	Lebanon
President	Hugo Chávez	2 February 1999	Venezuela
King	Abdullah II	7 February 1999	Jordan
President	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	27 April 1999	Algeria
President	Ismail Omar Guelleh	8 May 1999	Djibouti
President	Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ	29 May 1999	Nigeria
President	Thabo Mbeki	16 June 1999	South Africa
President	Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga	8 July 1999	Latvia
King	Mohammed VI	23 July 1999	Morocco
President	Bharrat Jagdeo	11 August 1999	Guyana
President	S.R. Nathan	1 September 1999	Singapore
President	Tandja Mamadou	22 December 1999	Niger
President	Vladimir Putin	31 December 1999	Russia
President	Kessai Note	10 January 2000	Marshall Islands
President	Stipe Mesić	18 February 2000	Croatia
President	Tarja Halonen	1 March 2000	Finland
President	Paul Kagame	24 March 2000	Rwanda
President	Abdoulaye Wade	1 April 2000	Senegal
President	Ahmet Necdet Sezer	16 May 2000	Turkey
President	Bashar al-Assad	17 July 2000	Syria
President	Ratu Josefa Iloilo	18 July 2000	Fiji
President	Moshe Katsav	1 August 2000	Israel
President	Ronald Venetiaan	12 August 2000	Suriname
Grand Duke	Henri	7 October 2000	Luxembourg
President	Laurent Gbagbo	26 October 2000	Côte d'Ivoire
President	Tommy Remengesau	1 January 2001	Palau
President	John Kufuor	7 January 2001	Ghana
President	Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo	20 January 2001	Philippines
President	George W. Bush	20 January 2001	United States
President	Joseph Kabila	26 January 2001	Democratic Republic of the Congo
President	Pedro Pires	22 March 2001	Cape Verde
President	Vladimir Voronin	7 April 2001	Moldova
King	Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva	4 June 2001	Nepal
President	Pervez Musharraf	20 June 2001	Pakistan
President	Fradique de Menezes	3 September 2001	São Tomé and Príncipe
President	Girma Wolde-Giorgis	8 October 2001	Ethiopia
Paramount ruler (Yang di-Pertuan Agong)	Syed Sirajuddin ibni al-Marhum Syed Putra Jamalullail	13 December 2001	Malaysia
President	Hamid Karzai	22 December 2001	Afghanistan
President	Levy Mwanawasa	2 January 2002	Zambia
President	Enrique Bolaños	10 January 2002	Nicaragua
President	Georgi Parvanov	22 January 2002	Bulgaria
King	Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah	14 February 2002	Bahrain
President	Marc Ravalomanana	22 February 2002	Madagascar
President	Xanana Gusmão	20 May 2002	East Timor
President	Amadou Toumani Touré	8 June 2002	Mali
President	Alfred Moisiu	24 July 2002	Albania
President	A.P.J. Abdul Kalam	25 July 2002	India
President	Álvaro Uribe Vélez	7 August 2002	Colombia
Governor-General	Sir Frederick Ballantyne	2 September 2002	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
President	Iajuddin Ahmed	6 September 2002	Bangladesh
President	Janez Drnovšek	22 December 2002	Slovenia
President	Mwai Kibaki	30 December 2002	Kenya
President	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	1 January 2003	Brazil
President	Roh Moo Hyun	25 February 2003	South Korea
President	Tassos Papadopoulos	28 February 2003	Cyprus
President	Václav Klaus	7 March 2003	Czech Republic
President	François Bozizé	15 March 2003	Central African Republic
President	Hu Jintao	15 March 2003	People's Republic of China
President	George Maxwell Richards	17 March 2003	Trinidad and Tobago
President	Joseph J. Urusemal	11 May 2003	Federated States of Micronesia
Co-Prince	Joan Enric Vives Sicília	12 May 2003	Andorra
President	Néstor Kirchner	25 May 2003	Argentina
President	Anote Tong	10 July 2003	Kiribati
Governor-General	Michael Jeffery	11 August 2003	Australia
President	Nicanor Duarte Frutos	15 August 2003	Paraguay
President	Nicholas Liverpool	2 October 2003	Dominica
President	Sir Anerood Jugnauth	7 October 2003	Mauritius
President	Ilham Aliyev	31 October 2003	Azerbaijan
President	Óscar Berger Perdomo	14 January 2004	Guatemala
President	Mikheil Saakashvili	25 January 2004	Georgia
President	Eddie Fenech Adami	4 April 2004	Malta
President	James Michel	14 April 2004	Seychelles
President	Branko Crvenkovski	12 May 2004	Republic of Macedonia
President	Bingu wa Mutharika	24 May 2004	Malawi
President	Antonio Saca	1 June 2004	El Salvador
President	Ivan Gašparovič	15 June 2004	Slovakia
President	Ludwig Scotty	22 June 2004	Nauru
Governor-General	Sir Paulias Matane	29 June 2004	Papua New Guinea
President	Horst Köhler	1 July 2004	Germany
Governor-General	Sir Nathaniel Waena	7 July 2004	Solomon Islands
President	Heinz Fischer	8 July 2004	Austria
President	Boris Tadić	11 July 2004	Serbia
President	Valdas Adamkus	12 July 2004	Lithuania
President	Leonel Fernández	16 August 2004	Dominican Republic
President	Kalkot Mataskelekele	16 August 2004	Vanuatu
President	Martín Torrijos	1 September 2004	Panama
King	Norodom Sihamoni	14 October 2004	Cambodia
President (in exile)	Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed	14 October 2004	Somalia
President	Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	20 October 2004	Indonesia
President	Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan	3 November 2004	United Arab Emirates
President	Traian Băsescu	20 December 2004	Romania
President	Viktor Yushchenko	23 January 2005	Ukraine
President	Armando Guebuza	2 February 2005	Mozambique
President	Tabaré Vázquez	1 March 2005	Uruguay
President	Karolos Papoulias	12 March 2005	Greece
President	Hifikepunye Pohamba	21 March 2005	Namibia
President	Kurmanbek Bakiyev	25 March 2005	Kyrgyzstan
Prince	Albert II	6 April 2005	Monaco
President	Jalal Talabani	7 April 2005	Iraq
Governor-General	Filoimea Telito	15 April 2005	Tuvalu
Sovereign Pontiff	Benedict XVI	19 April 2005	Vatican City
President	Alfredo Palacio	20 April 2005	Ecuador
President	Faure Gnassingbé	4 May 2005	Togo
President	Nambaryn Enkhbayar	24 June 2005	Mongolia
King	Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz	1 August 2005	Saudi Arabia
President	Ely Ould Mohamed Vall	3 August 2005	Mauritania
President	László Sólyom	5 August 2005	Hungary
President	Pierre Nkurunziza	26 August 2005	Burundi
Governor General	Michaëlle Jean	27 September 2005	Canada
President	João Bernardo Vieira	1 October 2005	Guinea-Bissau
President	Mahinda Rajapaksa	19 November 2005	Sri Lanka
President	Jakaya Kikwete	21 December 2005	Tanzania
President	Lech Kaczyński	23 December 2005	Poland
President	Moritz Leuenberger	1 January 2006	Switzerland
President	Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf	16 January 2006	Liberia
President	Evo Morales	22 January 2006	Bolivia
President	Manuel Zelaya	27 January 2006	Honduras
Emir	Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah	29 January 2006	Kuwait
Governor-General	Arthur Dion Hanna	1 February 2006	The Bahamas
Governor-General	Kenneth Hall	15 February 2006	Jamaica
Chairman of the Presidency of the Republic	Sulejman Tihić	28 February 2006	Bosnia and Herzegovina
President	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	9 March 2006	Portugal
President	Michelle Bachelet	11 March 2006	Chile
President	Yayi Boni	6 April 2006	Benin
President	Óscar Arias Sánchez	8 May 2006	Costa Rica
President	René Préval	14 May 2006	Haiti
President	Giorgio Napolitano	15 May 2006	Italy
President	Ahmed Abdallah Sambi	26 May 2006	Comoros
President	Filip Vujanović	3 June 2006	Montenegro
President	Choummaly Sayasone	8 June 2006	Laos
President	Nguyễn Minh Triết	27 June 2006	Vietnam
President	Alan García	28 July 2006	Peru
Governor-General	Anand Satyanand	23 August 2006	New Zealand
King	George Tupou V	11 September 2006	Tonga
Captains-Regent	Antonio Carattoni	1 October 2006	San Marino
	Roberto Giorgetti
President	Toomas Hendrik Ilves	9 October 2006	Estonia
President	Felipe Calderón	1 December 2006	Mexico

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