Statement by H.E. Mr. Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba at the Handover Ceremony of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China. January 12, 2023.
H.E. Mr. Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United Nations;
H.E. Mr. Csaba Körösi, President of the Seventy Seventh Session of the United Nations General Assembly;
H.E. Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Mr. Mourad Ahmia, Executive Secretary of the Group of 77 and China;
Distinguished permanent representatives and guests;
I would like to reiterate my gratitude for the support and confidence placed in Cuba to conduct the works of the Group of 77 and China during the year 2023. It will be a year of formidable challenges and complex processes that will demand a determined action from the countries of the South.
Likewise I would like to congratulate Pakistan for the successful work carried out at the helm of the Group in 2022.
I would also take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Secretariat staff of the G-77 and China, confident that we will count on its valuable support during our chairmanship.
Excellencies;
The great challenges imposed by the current economic order on the developing world have hit their highest point during these times of systmatic crises, namely health, climate, energy, food and economic crises; escalation of geo-political tensions and renewed forms of domination and hegemony.
Unequal access to vaccines; the digital gap; the burden of the foreign debt; the structural reform of the international financial architecture; development financing flows; food insecurity; trade restrictive measures; climate financing and capacity building are not yet being fully addressed.
It is already evident that the discreet progress achieved in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is at the risk of being reversed. We are bearing witness to an even more divided and selfish post-pandemic world.
It would be necessary to mobilize between 3.3 and 4.4 trillion dollars a year if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Taking into account the current levels of public and private investments in sectors related to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, developing countries are facing, as an average, a 2.5 trillion dollars annual financing gap, and this is happening in the midst of the most serious multi-system crisis ever faced by humanity.
Developing countries have only access to 24 doses of COVID-19 vaccines per every 100 inhabitants, while the richest count on almost 150 doses per every 100 persons.
The countries of the South have seen how their foreign debt has almost doubled during the last ten years. However, they have also been the ones that had to pay approximately 379 billion dollars from their reserves to defend their currencies in 2022 –almost twice as much the amount of new Special Drawing Rights allocated to them by the International Monetary Fund.
The least developed countries only contribute 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but have suffered 69 per cent of the deaths caused by climate-related disasters.
Our climate adaptation needs will surge to figures between 140 billion and 300 billion dollars a year by 2030. However, financing from developed countries currently account for less than one tenth of that amount.
At the same time, more than thirty measures and systems of unilateral coercive measures against developing countries continue to be fully implemented. It is a trend that far from reversing has exacerbated during the last few years.
Excellencies;
Unity is the word of order in these difficult times. Only by building consensus will we be able to move on in the implementation of our legitimate development aspirations.
From our chairmanship we commit ourselves to consolidate the unity, presence and influence of the Group in the numerous and relevant multilateral processes to take place this year. We will call for our common interests to be duly taken into account.
We will guide our works in a flexible and always constructive way, based on the broadest possible consensus, in order to implement the transformative vision defended by our Group.
It will be our priority to foster international solidarity and cooperation in support of the post-pandemic recovery of our nations.
We will work to materialize cooperative projects from the South in the areas of health, biotechnology, education, the combat of climate change and the prevention of disasters, which may set an example of unity, complementarity and true political will.
We will not cease in our just claims for developed countries to honor their commitments in terms of Official Assistance for Development, climate financing and North-South Cooperation.
We will face any attempt to put on our shoulders the burden of unfulfilled promises by the most powerful nations, which allocate millions to the weapons manufacturing, not to development.
We will promote tangible commitments in terms of financing under favorable conditions and capacity building for the countries of the South.
We will advocate for the use of science, technology and innovation as the engines of sustainable development. We will take as a starting point the expertise of the Group in these matters and promote a common road map in the face of present and future challenges.
In that spirit we will convene a Summit on Science, Technology and Innovation as a premise for development and to cope with future pandemics, to be held in Havana this year.
Scientific and technological development is currently monopolized by a club of countries that own most of the patents, technologies and research centers and encourage a brain drain from our countries.
The South has a great potential in terms of science, technology and innovation. We should get together, complement each other and integrate our national capabilities to avoid being relegated in the event of future pandemics. The meeting in Havana will pursue that goal in particular: to build upon our rich wealth of expertise in this area.
With regard to climate, we will work to consolidate a sound position of the Group prior to COP 28. We will advocate for the achievement of substantive results in those areas of special interest for the Group, particularly those related to the fund for losses and damages, climate finance and adaptation.
The foreign debt, the main amount of which has already been paid several times over, has become one of the main obstacles to the development of our peoples as well as a powerful instrument to perpetuate the financial plundering and economic dependence of the countries of the South
In this regard, we will promote the adoption of new approaches to address the debt architecture, which can offer a fiscal space to our nations in order to invest in the post-pandemic recovery, climate action and Sustainable Development Goals; and contribute to prevent future debt crises.
We will insist on the comprehensive restructuring of the international financial governance system, currently in the hands of a few institutions that make a profit from the reserves of the South, perpetuate underdevelopment and apply merely junctural formulas with the purpose of replicating their modern colonialism scheme.
We will also reinforce coordination among the G77 chapters at other multilateral venues in order to identify working priorities in the numerous negotiation processes that will take place in 2023.
We shall put every effort in the success of the Third South Summit, whose Declaration and Program of Action are expected to strengthen the historical heritage of the Group and pave the way for our actions in these times of huge challenges.
Excellencies;
Current times admit no hesitations or divisions. These are times to act together in the defense of our neglected claims.
The Joint Declaration of 1964 established that unity had a pride of place in the face of the basic problems of development. That unity has been the fundamental pillar of the achievements of the South throughout the last six decades.
In the threshold of our sixtieth anniversary, let us embrace the founding principles that gave life to this diverse and representative group of nations. Let us work so that, upon the conclusion of this year, we can be stronger and more united.
To Cuba, that will be the best expression of a job well done. To the Group, that will be an invaluable new step down the path towards the realization of our historical aspirations as developing nations.
Thank you, very much
(Cubaminrex)