King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium?hosted Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the Asia Society¡¯s dialogue entitled ¡°Forging a Shared Future: Strategic Cooperation between Asia, Europe, and the United States.¡±

Speaking at the Royal Palace of Brussels for the event, the Secretary-General thanked Queen Mathilde for ¡°agreeing to add

[her] voice to keep this shared vision in focus and help ensure that no one is left behind¡± in her capacity as an SDG Advocate.

He also remarked on the ¡°worrying tendencies to look inward ¡ª or strike outward ¡ª when pressure mounts. The most important dynamics of the international community today are no longer between developed and developing countries, East and West, or North and South. Instead, we are unified in the challenges we face and in the potential we have. We should think of ourselves as one humanity with a shared responsibility.¡±

The Brussels meeting was part of the global dialogue series launched by the Asia Society. The dialogues seek?to enhance cooperative partnerships either through existing formal and informal mechanisms or through recommendations for new opportunities of collaboration.

The resulting observations and recommendations from these dialogues will be curated into a set of findings and presented to national, regional, and global leaders later this year. These findings will also be presented to the Secretary-General.

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Full text of Secretary-General¡¯s remarks: /sg/statements/index.asp?nid=9805

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