Activities of Secretary-General in California, 17-20 January

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accompanied by Madam Ban Soon-taek, arrived in San Francisco, California, on the morning of Thursday, 17 January.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General spoke at Stanford University on the theme “The United Nations and a World in Transition”.  In his lecture, he discussed, among other topics, the sustainable development challenge that the world faces.  He pointed out that in the next 20 years, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water.  He also talked about the continuing crisis in Syria, as well as United Nations humanitarian efforts there.  (See Press Release SG/SM/14769.)

After the lecture, the Secretary-General had a working dinner with faculty leadership and local dignitaries, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defence William Perry.

On Friday, he went to Monterey, California, where he met with the President of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Sunder Ramaswamy, and Professor Bill Potter.  After that, he spoke at MIIS on the theme “Advancing the Disarmament and Non-proliferation Agenda:  Seeking Peace in an Over-Armed World”.

In his lecture, he called for more progress on nuclear disarmament.  He encouraged the nuclear-armed States to come up with a bold set of measures to promote transparency about their nuclear arsenals.  He said that we must intensify efforts to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force.  He also said that another year of stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament would be simply unacceptable.  (See Press Release SG/SM/14772.)

After his lecture, the Secretary-General met with the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association (UNA) Monterey Chapter.  In the evening, he attended a dinner hosted by President Sunder Ramaswamy in Pebble Beach.

The Secretary-General and his wife travelled back to New York over the weekend.