Thank you, Prime Minister, and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the media.
It is a great pleasure for me to visit Sweden for the second time as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Mister Prime Minister, let me begin by expressing my deepest thanks for your warm hospitality and welcome and I would like to congratulate you as President of the European Union. I count on your great and dynamic leadership in addressing many important and serious global challenges, and I'm counting on your leadership and am ready to work very closely with you in your national capacity as Prime Minister, as well as in your capacity as the Presidency of the European Union.
This morning I was very impressed by the passion and commitment demonstrated by young leaders, school children and college students who were very much inspiring to me and who are very creative in sending out strong and powerful messages to the world through their REClimate video competition, through their songs and through their ideas. I was very much impressed by them.
I also applauded Sweden's leadership on climate change during my just-concluded luncheon hosted by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister made an inspiring speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations during the summit meeting on climate change.
He said, if I may correctly recall, that the world has got the fever, this fever is going on and going up. We must cool down this fever and we must work together to address climate change. I thank you for your strong statement and strong leadership during this summit meeting.
As the Prime Minister has just said, it was the largest ever gathering of Heads of State and Government and heads of state focusing on climate change. We were able to harness much needed political commitment and leadership. The only things which I am urging is that the negotiators should make progress to meet the expectations and guidelines of the leaders. I will begin my discussions again with Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark tomorrow who will be the host and chair of the climate change meeting in December.
During our working luncheon, I also conveyed to the Prime Minister how much we value Sweden's and the European Union's uncompromising dedication to the common good of humanity, in practically every field of activity in which the United Nations is engaged - ranging from conflict prevention, peace building, peacekeeping, development, humanitarian assistance, human rights to the pressing peace and security issues facing us today.
We discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Cyprus and we also discussed many other important issues. We will continue to work together on many issues of concern [to] the international community.
As you know, my visit to Sweden is short but very packed. After this engagement I will have the honour of an audience with his Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav and then visit the gravesite of former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld before delivering a lecture and having an exchange with the students at Uppsala University.
I'm also looking forward to my meeting with Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and my visit to the Parliament, as well as my meeting tomorrow with representatives of Sweden's vibrant non-governmental organizations.
Again, I want to thank you very much, Prime Minister, and Swedish Government and people, for their great leadership, dedication, commitment and generous contribution for the future of humanity.
And for your generosity and hospitality you are showing me and my team during my visit.