Addis Ababa, September 22/2023(ENA) The G77+ China Summit was important as it made a general and critical outline of the main obstacles to the development of the nations of the South, according to Ambassador Jorge Lefebre Nicolas of Cuba.
The ambassador told ENA that the 47-point final declaration adopted at the summit in Havana, Cuba, is a progressive and universal text that reflects the purposes and principles of the G77, taking into account the needs of developing countries.
It affirms the claim of the right to development and denounces the current international order, exclusionary, unequal, unjust, and plundering.
According to Nicolas, the summit advocates the fulfillment of international development commitments by developed countries.
“It was a huge success, even more than we expected,” he said, adding that around 116 countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and Caribbean took part in the summit.
Among the issues addressed in the declaration were the main challenges generated by the current international economic order and the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture, with a more inclusive and coordinated approach to global financial governance.
There was a huge understanding that the actual architecture of the financial system is not according to the needs of the countries nowadays and it needs to be reformed, Ambassador Nicolas noted.
He also revealed that there was a call for urgent reform of the financial institutions worldwide in favor of the necessity of the developing countries.
“There was unanimous call to redesign the financial institutions according to the need, to comply with the need to the South; and also there was huge call to stop sanctions on countries for political reasons. And there was again a call to give all countries of the South the same access to technology, science and economic development.”
The ambassador recalled that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres delivered a very important speech talking about multilateralism and the necessities of economy of developing countries.
Moreover, there was a call that the countries of the North fulfill something that has been approved in the past — to give assistance to developing countries and to fulfill their commitment towards the developing countries.
In the this case, Ambassador Nicolas stated that the summit was a complete success. It gave voice to the needs and the necessity to the countries of the South.
“We are very happy that Ethiopia sent a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Demeke Mekonnen who delivered a very important speech in which he spoke about the advancement of Ethiopia in the economic field, in the digital area, the Green Legacy and also the development of industrial parks.”
At the same time, he voiced his stand against sanctions and the coercive measures that prevent the country from getting access to fair development, the ambassador said.
On the sidelines of the summit, the Ethiopian delegation also conducted some bilateral and multilateral meetings with delegations in Cuba and with many organizations of the UN system and other heads of state, it was learned.
The Group of 77+China is a coalition of 139 developing countries designed to promote members collective economic interests and create enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency