United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that on July 26-27 he will visit San Francisco, the birthplace of the United Nations. Organized in cooperation with the United Nations Association of the USA, the trip will provide the secretary-general with the opportunity to make his first official visit to a major US city outside of New York City and Washington, DC. “I look forward to broadening my conversation with the American people and their leaders about the critical role of the United Nations in our increasingly globalized world,” said the secretary-general.

The Secretary-General will be renewing his ties with California’s Bay Area, where he lived in the early 1960s as a young foreign exchange student. In fact, Mr. Ban will pay a visit to Mrs. Libba Patterson, a retired teacher who hosted him at her home in Novato, California during that time.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will accompany the secretary-general on a tour of the War Memorial's Opera House and the Herbst theater, where the UN Charter was signed in 1945. Mr. Ban will meet with community leaders, including the presidents of local United Nations Association chapters.

As part of the trip, the secretary-general also plans to meet California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss combating climate change, a priority issue for both leaders, and tour local businesses in the Bay Area using green technologies that can be applied worldwide. “I look forward to seeing first-hand how California leads the world on this issue of supreme importance,” said the secretary-general.

In addition to the secretary-general’s office and UNA-USA, several partners have collaborated on the coordination of the San Francisco visit. The Governor’s office and staff have been instrumental in organizing the details of the visit. Other partners include Mayor Newsom's office and the World Affairs Council of Northern California, which will be hosting a public conversation with the Secretary-General at the Fairmont Hotel on July 26. UNA-USA members in the area can purchase discounted tickets to this event.