The G77 Summit, convened by Cuba, will focus on current challenges of development
Havana, Sept 15 (RHC) The Summit of the Group of 77, convened by Cuba, begins today in Havana, focused on the current challenges of development: Role of science, technology and innovation.
With the participation of more than a hundred delegations from the bloc's member states and officials from international organizations, the event will promote high-level debates on the most pressing political and economic issues for developing nations.
As part of the agenda, participants are expected to continue the Group's historical demands, particularly in relation to the new international economic order, the reform of the global financial architecture, the rejection of unilateral coercive measures, concentration of wealth, and the weight of the external debt.
According to Cuban ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso, special representative to coordinate the presidency of the bloc, the Summit should contribute to strengthening the voice of the G77 in the current intergovernmental processes within the framework of the United Nations, in particular the Development Goals Summit Sustainable Development and the Future Summit, in which context the so-called Digital Global Pact must be developed and agreed upon.
Pedroso assured that the Summit will be a space for developing countries to renew their commitment to multilateralism and to genuine and disinterested international cooperation as an essential foundation of relations between States.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez recently informed the press that the draft final declaration of the event is loyal to the purposes and principles of the group, attentive to the needs of developing countries, and firmly attached to the claim of the right to development in the midst of an increasingly exclusive and unfair international order.
He announced that the text also proposes declaring an international day of science, technology and innovation in the South.
According to the program, the event, which will be held this Friday and Saturday, will consist of an opening session, followed by the general or plenary debate in which the heads of State and Government, representatives of delegations and officials of international organizations will participate.
During the opening of the meeting, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, will speak.
Since its incorporation in 1971, the Caribbean nation has played an active role in the G77, mainly in promoting South-South cooperation, as a path to equitable development between countries.
Cuba assumed the pro tempore presidency of the group last January, the first time that the Caribbean country has led this mechanism.
The G77 is the most diverse consultation group in the multilateral sphere, with 134 member states that represent two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations Organization and 80% of the world's population. (Source: PL)
