By The White House | Created at 2026-09-22 18:30:13 | Updated at 2026-09-26 03:04:17
3 days ago
First Lady Melania Trump today reconvened members of Fostering the Future Together during the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
The First Lady welcomed leaders from around the world, including representatives from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Ukraine, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, Canada, and other nations.
First Lady Melania Trump remarked, “Together, we are a beautiful range of cultures, languages, histories, and traditions. And yet, we stand unified around one everlasting truth: the future of our world will be determined by what we do for our children today.”
First Lady Melania Trump unveiled several upcoming Fostering the Future Together events for 2026:
- G20, hosted by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump
- ASEAN Conference, hosted by First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos of the Philippines
- European Regional Meeting, hosted by First Lady Marta Nawrocka of Poland
- Caribbean Regional Meeting, hosted by First Lady Diani Prince-Drew of Saint Kitts and Nevis
“When nations speak with one voice, the world listens. Our collective influence is profound. Together, we can open doors, move markets, shape policy. And most importantly, we can change lives for the better,” First Lady Melania Trump said.
First Lady Melania Trump also announced new private-sector technology partnerships with Adobe, Amazon, Intel, Starlink, Google, and Zoom. Tim Cook, Executive Chairman of Apple and Enrique Lores, CEO of PayPal, also attended.
The First Lady welcomed new member nations, expanding Fostering the Future Together to fifty-seven participating countries.
Calling on the assembled First Spouses to act, First Lady Melania Trump said, “Our Fostering the Future Together coalition must strive to empower the youth of our nations to: bend the boundaries of imagination, explore new frontiers of intellect, have the courage to take calculated risks, and build toward advancement of society.”
About Fostering the Future Together:
Fostering the Future Together is a global coalition of nations unified to empower children through technology and education.
First Lady Melania Trump announced Fostering the Future Together during the 80th United Nations General Assembly. In spring 2026, she convened the initiative’s two-day Global Coalition Summit in Washington DC, bringing together First Spouses and technology-sector leaders at the United States Department of State. The gathering culminated at the White House, where the First Lady welcomed the largest assembly of First Spouses ever convened there for diplomatic purposes in U.S. history.
The First Lady’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below.
Fostering the Future Together Expands Nation Memberships, Private-Sector Commitments, & Unveils New Events
Thank you, Special Envoy Wallace and Ambassador Waltz. Your ongoing commitment to support Fostering the Future Together is both important and meaningful.
Friends, Excellencies, and Distinguished Leaders. Welcome to New York City.
Fostering the Future Together now unites nearly 60 nations, many represented here today. You have traveled great distances in support of our children, bringing together distinguished leaders from Panama, the Republic of Korea, Kenya, Albania, Estonia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and beyond.
Together, we are a beautiful range of cultures, languages, histories, and traditions.
And yet, we stand unified around one everlasting truth: the future of our world will be determined by what we do for our children today.
Fostering the Future Together is more than a coalition. It is a commitment to empower children through technology and education, to ensure that every child, regardless of where they are born, has the opportunity to imagine, learn, create, and thrive.
When nations speak with one voice, the world listens. Our collective influence is profound. Together, we can open doors, move markets, shape policy. And most importantly, we can change lives for the better.
Each of us has been entrusted with the responsibility of leadership.
But mark my words, our success will not be measured solely by what we accomplish during our time in this role. Our success as leaders will be measured by what remains after we are gone.
Did we strengthen our schools? Did we make new discoveries possible? Did we inspire greater innovation?
And most importantly, will the next generation be able to build upon our vision and use our accomplishments to advance their careers, families, communities, and nations?
So, I ask you: Will you join me and lead? Will you put the future of our children above the differences that divide us?
Fostering the Future Together is a global coalition with a unified mission: to empower children through technology and education.
But what does it mean to empower a child?
True empowerment begins by giving a child the confidence to believe that their mind has value. It means giving children the freedom to imagine a world beyond the one they know today and the confidence, knowledge, and tools to make the vision real.
Our Fostering the Future Together coalition must strive to empower the youth of our nations to:
- Bend the boundaries of imagination,
- Explore new frontiers of intellect,
- Have the courage to take calculated risks, and
- Build toward advancement of society.
When we succeed, we will create a stronger world shaped by a new generation of people capable of building healthier communities, with greater tolerance for one another, advanced technologies, food security, new industries, and widespread prosperity.
The people in this room today can prepare our children and our grandchildren not simply to inherit the world—but to improve it.
That is empowerment.
We are living in an extraordinary moment in human history. We stand together at the threshold of a technological revolution.
Ideas once confined to science-fiction novels and films have become part of our everyday reality. What once seemed impossible is becoming ordinary.
Today, we can converse with AI, video call our families from any place on the planet, hold an entire computer in the palm of our hand, use self-driving cars, enter virtual worlds, and use biometric ID to access our bank accounts, airport terminals, and homes. The list is exhaustive.
Artificial intelligence is transforming entire business sectors and expanding how humanity accesses the largest corpus of information ever available to humanity.
But access alone is not empowerment. We must give our children the tools—and teach them how to use those tools wisely.
I would also like to take a minute to thank our private-sector tech companies who have also stepped up to empower our children: Adobe, Amazon, Google, Starlink, Zoom, and Intel. Thank you for empowering children with access to technology, all over the planet.
When we gathered at the White House for the inaugural meeting of Fostering the Future Together, we witnessed something very powerful. Our first spouses were inspired to act—and several made meaningful commitments.
I thank Ms. Marcos from the Philippines, who has committed to hosting a Fostering the Future Together event at the upcoming ASEAN conference in Manila. Poland’s Marta Nawrocka will host a regional European Fostering the Future Together event for members this winter.
The First Lady of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Diani Prince-Drew, is organizing and hosting our Caribbean Fostering the Future Together conference before the new year–perfect timing to gather in that beautiful region of the world. Thank you.
And in December, I will host Fostering the Future Together’s first G20 event in Miami, Florida.
To the leaders of these great nations: thank you for stepping forward to activate your regions. You will have my full support.
Years from now, our children may not remember the meetings we held or the speeches we gave. But they will live with the consequences of what we do here. So, let history say that at a moment of extraordinary possibility, leaders from around the world came together through Fostering the Future Together and chose to put children first.
