From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 3, September 2000.

Tongan Prime Minister, Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, joined world leaders attending the U.N. Millennium Summit in September, the largest such gathering in recorded history.

The United Nation’s Secretary-General Kofi Annan rang the Japanese Peace Bell to open the summit, saying “Let it ring out a century of cruelty and destruction and let it ring in a millennium of hope and peace.”

More than 150 heads of state—including four kings, princes, generals, presidents and prime ministers—were convening in New York for the summit, from September 6-8. It was expected to end with a declaration committing the global leaders to eradicating poverty, promoting education and combating HIV/AIDS.

Annan told the group that the United Nations had been created “in the belief that dialogue can triumph over discord, that diversity is a universal virtue and that the peoples of the world are far more united by their common fate than they are divided by their separate identities.”