United Nations Radio

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid his respect to the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld during his visit to Sweden on Thursday.

Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash during a peace mission in September 1961 in the Congo, today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Ban visited the grave of the former Secretary-General  in Stockholm.

The Secretary-General also spoke at Uppsala University, where Dag Hammarskjöld spent his earliest years and received his education.

UN spokesperson Michele Montas has more.

"At the university, the Secretary-General said that Hammarskjöld's concerns and his ambitions remain ours. He said that he was 17 when Hammarskjöld died, and was just beginning to think about how to help build a better world. Today, he said, his hope is to create that kind of solidarity at all times, in good times and bad, so that we can fight common threats, and seize common opportunities."

Earlier, the Secretary-General met with former General Assembly President Jan Eliasson and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

At a joint press encounter with the Prime Minister, Mr. Ban applauded Sweden's leadership, on its own and as European Union President, on climate change.

Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio
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