Text by Dutch Royal Household.
King, Queen and Prime Minister attended 70th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Prime Minister Mark Rutte attended the 70th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
As leader of the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the King addressed the General Assembly at the opening of the General Debate on Monday, 28 September, becoming the first Dutch head of state ever to do so.
On the eve of the election of non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, for which the Netherlands is a candidate, the Netherlands will thus impress on the 70th Session of the General Assembly the high regard in which it holds the UN.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders, Prime Minister Mike Eman of Aruba, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for the Environment Wilma Mansveld and the Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb have all announced that they will be attending the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly.
In his address, the King discussed the significance of the United Nations, and the contribution the Kingdom of the Netherlands has made in the fields of peace, justice and development.
Queen Máxima also attended in her role as the “UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development”. She presented the annual report on her UN activities to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
On Saturday, 26 September, Prime Minister Mark Rutte delivered a speech at the Sustainable Development Summit, when the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched. These Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire this year.
The aim of the SDGs is to widen the scope of the MDGs by incorporating subjects such as sustainability, inequality and peace into an agenda applicable to every country.
The chief ambition is the eradication throughout the world of extreme poverty by 2030. Queen Máxima and Minister Ploumen also attended the summit. In the past few years, Minister Ploumen has led both Dutch implementation of the MDGs and the Netherlands’ contribution to the drafting of the new SDGs.
In the margins of the UN General Assembly, President Barack Obama held a world leader summit on UN peacekeeping which Prime Minister Mark Rutte addressed. On 26 September, Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders became co-chair of the Global Counterterrorism Forum.
The programme for the Kingdom’s delegation is filled with numerous events, talks and bilateral meetings.
The Kingdom aspires to non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council (2017 to 2018). This aspiration is in line with the Kingdom’s international ambitions and commitment and the position of The Hague as the world’s legal capital. As a non-permanent member of the Security Council, the Kingdom will have a voice in decisions on, for example, the mandates of UN peacekeeping missions and protection of people in areas in conflict.
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Allocution of HM The King of the Netherlands:
