Taking the podium at the United Nations General Assembly today, King Tupou VI of Tonga and Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi of Samoa joined leaders of other small island developing States (SIDS) in urging that sustainable development agenda address climate change in a way that is integrated throughout its targets.

The war in Afghanistan remains one of the serious threats to regional and global security, two Central Asian officials today told the United Nations General Assembly, urging a political solution to the conflict that could very well escalate in 2014, stirring up terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and illegal migration.

In the last four and a half years, 50 million people have joined the ranks of the middle class while the average gross domestic product (GDP) rate has remained at 6.4 per cent, Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh told the General Assembly today.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se of the Republic of Korea today called on the international community to roll back the nuclear weapons programmes of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to prevent the advent of another nuclear-armed State, offering aid to his country’s northern neighbour if it changes course.