The United Nations General Assembly opened its 65th session at the New York-based UN headquarters on September 23.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet attended the opening session.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the session, urging the world to pull together through the UN to secure a better future for everyone.

Stressing the need for a principled and pragmatic stand “against forces that would divide us,” the UN chief said it is time to translate promises into reality on issues ranging from eradicating poverty and tackling climate change to eliminating nuclear weapons and promoting the empowerment of women.

“The world still looks to the United Nations for moral and political leadership. The great goals are within reach. We can achieve them by looking forward, pulling together, uniting our strength as a community of nations in the name of the larger good.”

Ban welcomed the results of this week’s UN summit on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set of targets for defeating poverty, hunger, disease and other global ills, all by 2015.

He cited climate change, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and gender equality as among the most important issues that the world must deal with.

Several state leaders addressed the general debate on the day, including Swiss President Doris Leuthart, US President Barack Obama, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Chinese President Wen Jiabao and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper./.