As Secretary of State John Kerry put it after a meeting on the sidelines Sunday, “It would be a complete understatement to say that we meet at a challenging time”.
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US President Barack Obama on Sunday urged world leaders to step up efforts for a “strong” climate agreement at year-end talks in Paris.
President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) made the pledge at a United Nations global summit that has set new sweeping, but non-binding, development goals for the next 15 years.
Salam said the Syrian civil war and fleeing refugees “is one of the greatest development challenges” facing Lebanon. Both leaders also were to address the opening of the assembly’s annual ministerial meeting on Monday. Endorsed Friday by the U.N.’s 193 members, the plan includes fighting climate change and eradicating extreme poverty.
Despite administration efforts to turn Putin into an global pariah after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, Obama believes not engaging with the Russian leader “would be wrong” given the pressing issues in Ukraine and Syria, Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.
President Jacob Zuma, of South Africa, addresses the 2015 Sustainable Development Summit, Sunday, September 27, 2015, at United Nations headquarters.
American President Barack Obama has told the United Nations that supporting development is not an act of “charity” but rather an investment in the world’s common future.
Earlier Sunday, French President Francois Hollande announced his country’s first airstrikes in Syria, raising the stakes in a region where a U.S.-led coalition nervously watches a new Russian military buildup near Syria’s Mediterranean coast. President Dilma Rousseff said Brazil will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels as part of its contribution to a pact to fight global warming.
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Iran’s president said in his address that the recent deal with world powers on its nuclear program “has created suitable conditions for regional and global cooperation”, including on protecting the environment.
