UNITED NATIONS -- The UN General Assembly kicked off its 71st session here on Tuesday with a focus on joint global efforts to carry out the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a blueprint for ending poverty, hunger, advancing equality and protecting the environment for the years leading up to 2030.

The session was declared open by Peter Thomson, president of the 71st session of the General Assembly. Thomson, the UN ambassador of Fiji, was elected to the current post by the UN General Assembly in June.

Minutes before the opening of the annual General Assembly session, Thomson raised his right hand with a copy of the UN Charter in it and took the oath of office -- the first General Assembly president to do so in the history of the United Nations.

To show his firm determination to help the world implement the SDGs, the General Assembly president invited his two granddaughters -- seven and five years old -- to the podium of the General Assembly hall, and said, "They will become two young adults in 2030," the deadline of the SDGs, a set of 17 sustainable development targets.

He then asked what kind of world would be left to them.