HispanicBusiness

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday met with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to offer his appreciation for the European country's support to the UN efforts to promote sustainable development.

During the meeting, Ban "expressed his appreciation for Spain's support for the UN's sustainable development goals, the 'Alliance of Civilizations' initiative, and UN peacekeeping in Lebanon and elsewhere," his spokesman said in a readout to the press here.

The meeting between Ban and Rajoy took place on the sidelines of the general debate of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly, which opened here on Tuesday morning.

In the meeting, they also discussed the "importance of the international community doing more to help stabilize the worrying situation in the Sahel," the readout said.

Latest reports have said that children in the Sahel region need more life-saving assistance to meet the growing malnutrition need. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has treated more than 526,000 children since the beginning of this year.

UNICEF has pleaded on behalf of the region for an additional $258 million to do work to prevent malnutrition.

The two also discussed the humanitarian situation resulting from the Syrian crisis, the readout said.