President Mnookin Welcomes World Leaders to Columbia University
While the General Assembly met across town at the United Nations and Climate Week events got underway in New York City, world leaders came to Morningside campus last week to meet with students, faculty, and staff as part of the Univerity’s World Leaders Forum.
In a LinkedIn post, President Jennifer L. Mnookin wrote about what a “pleasure and an honor” it was for her and the University to welcome “presidents, prime ministers, and leaders to Columbia, and what a remarkable set of opportunities for our students!”
The World Leaders Forum, which started more than two decades ago, invites heads of state and of major global organizations to engage with the Columbia community on the most pressing issues of the day.
Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Founding Member of The Elders
“There is one article [of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights] that I think the human rights community has neglected. ... And that’s Article 29. ... Everyone has duties to the community, in which alone the free and full expression of their personality is reached. In other words, unless you know you have duties to the community, you yourself don’t reach your full potential.”
Listen to the full speech and discussion, September 22, 2026.
José Raúl Mulino Quintero, President of the Republic of Panama
“The country’s competitiveness ... is decided in the classroom, in the curiosity of a student who chooses to understand the world rather than merely inherit it. To the young people here today, Panamanian or not, the future is not inherited. It is studied. You build it, and you question it.”
Listen to the full speech and discussion, September 22, 2026.
Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine
“Resilience is not an innate trait or some exceptional ability. It emerges where there is trust between people and an understanding that the fate of the country depends on the decisions of each individual. Unfortunately, throughout our history, Ukrainians have had to exercise this ability far too often because far too often they have had to fight for the simple right to exist.”
Listen to the full speech and discussion, September 23, 2026.
Alexander Stubb, President of the Republic of Finland
“You can’t solve the climate crisis, you can’t solve conflicts, you can’t solve artificial intelligence only with people who think exactly like you. ... In foreign policy, you have to make value judgments almost every day … We live in a complex world, and we don’t have these sort of black and white answers to everything, and certainly not in foreign policy. So that’s why I think values-based realism is quite a good tool.”
Listen to the full speech and discussion, September 24, 2026.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic
“AI can really transform the speed of procurement and the transparency. ... If we develop a solution in Greece, it could easily be applicable also to other countries. ... Solutions-oriented AI ... does not provide or pose a threat to the civil servants who will use it. ... This is a productivity-enhancing tool that will ... allow them to do more with less effort and probably spend their time on substantive work.”
Listen to the full speech and discussion, September 24, 2026.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis spoke with Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, in a session moderated by Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and a Washington Post Columnist. Their panel was part of a series of speeches and talks on artificial intelligence. Other visitors in these discussions included:
- Costantza Sbokou Constantakopoulou, Endeavor Greece Chairwoman, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
- Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of UNESCO
- Anastasis Germanidis, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Runway
- Jennifer Lee, Oscar-winning Filmmaker and Former Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios