KAMPALA, Uganda.- "For the Group of 77, the current time cannot be one of begging developed countries, nor of submission, defeatism or internal divisions, but rather one of rescuing our fighting spirit, unity and cohesion around our demands." This is how our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz spoke when inaugurating the First South Summit, 24 years ago, in Havana.
It is impossible not to return again and again to his ideas, which seemed to have been said just hours ago, when the third of these meetings began in the Ugandan city of Kampala. The warnings made more than two decades ago by Fidel cannot be ignored today, when the challenges for the people of the south have multiplied.
According to assessments offered to the Presidency's press team by Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, special representative to coordinate the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China, from that historic moment in 2000 to date, "it has become increasingly "The importance that the historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution gave then to creating a platform of the South and for the South is evident."
It is a process, he considered, that "if it had not been devised back then, it would have had to be devised today, because the political, economic and social circumstances of the world are increasingly raising the need for more intense dialogue and cooperation." and effective among developing countries.
The prominent diplomat recalls that, although at the Cuba meeting it was agreed to hold these meetings every five years, this third Summit takes place 18 years after the second, held in 2005 in Qatar, which was motivated by various international circumstances.
In that period, he noted, there was "a setback in what is known as international cooperation for development, including financing for development, and a decrease in all cooperation flows in terms of technology, industrialization, knowledge... in a world that is not that of the year 2000.
"We are in a circumstance where the pattern of development is being set by the digitalization of the economy and artificial intelligence, and therefore the gaps between countries and regions are increasingly widening."
Taking into account this unobjectionable reality, Pedroso Cuesta stressed that this Summit and the document that was adopted at the opening ceremony represent a very important cooperation platform for the Group of 77 and China.
«The Cuban chairmanship of that Group, which it held from January 2023 until now, essentially proposed that: first to strengthen the principles on which the Group of 77 is based, which are solidarity and unity, in the midst of the immense diversity that distinguishes the 134 member countries," he emphasized.
And that diversity, he said, "does not constitute a weakness at all, but rather a potential, a richness, where we can rediscover each other."
Referring specifically to the issue of science, technology and innovation, highly defended by Fidel at that first Havana Summit, Pedroso Cuesta commented on the Summit of Heads of State and Government of G77 and China held in Cuba last year .
Currently, he said, "we cannot talk about development, we cannot talk about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, we cannot talk about making a transition towards a new, less energy-intensive model, or moving away from the intense consumption of fossil fuels." and go to an energy revolution, without talking about science, technology and innovation.
"Only on that basis can we speak of a development process that is sustainable over time and not only from an environmental point of view," he stressed.
On the other hand, as "a major and unprecedented challenge" he classified the fact that Uganda assumed the pro tempore Presidency not only of the Group of 77 and China, but also of the Non-Aligned Movement. And although it is the first time that this happens, he commented, we see "the brothers of this country very open to receiving all the cooperation of the Group and to march together, as we march."
The Group of 77 and China, he said, "not only represents today the most important negotiating group on issues in the economic and social spheres, but has reaffirmed itself as one of the most important international actors, as a fundamental interlocutor."
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations