UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 25 (Reuters) – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle traveled to the United Nations in New York on Saturday to meet with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the organization’s annual gathering of leaders world of 193 members.

“It was a great reunion,” Markle told reporters as the couple left UN headquarters.

Mohammed praised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s commitment and work on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations said. The goals were created by the United Nations in 2015 and address issues such as ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality and tackling climate change.

“The Deputy Secretary-General affirmed her support for shared priorities on climate action, women’s economic empowerment, youth engagement and mental well-being,” the United Nations said in a statement.

The couple are in New York City to attend the Global Citizen Live concert in Central Park later Saturday, which aims to push for more action to fight climate change and urge rich countries to share a billion doses of COVID vaccines. -19 with the most needy countries.

On Thursday, the 37-year-old Prince and Meghan, 40, visited the town’s memorial to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. They were joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The couple left royal duties last year to build an independent life and moved from Britain to California, where they live with their two children – Archie and Lilibet, two, born in June.

They started their Archewell Foundation and made lucrative deals for the production of TV shows and a podcast. Last week, the couple covered the annual issue of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

The United Nations said that at Saturday’s meeting, Mohammed “also praised the initiatives of the Archewell Foundation to promote equity in vaccines around the world.”

World leaders returned to the United Nations over the past week with a focus on stepping up efforts to tackle both climate change and COVID-19. Last year, leaders sent video statements to the United Nations high-level Annual General Assembly instead of traveling to New York amid the pandemic.

Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Nick Zieminski

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