Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the U.N.'s 70th Anniversary
On June 26, Asia Society partnered with Stanford University, the World Affairs Council, and the Asia Foundation for a special address by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter. Hosted by Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), the Secretary-General drew attention to the global body's multi-pronged efforts to seek multilateral solution to some of the world's most intractable challenges, including on climate change, poverty, terrorism and extremism, and war, among many others. Telling the audience that 2015 is a critical "year for global action," Ban noted that the U.N. is not perfect and has made mistakes in its seventy-year history, but emphasized that "the world [would be] more dangerous, poorer, hungrier and more unhealthy without the United Nations."
Watch video of the U.N. Secretary-General's remarks here (courtesy of Stanford University):