CUBA to Host the G-77 and China Summit this weekend in Havana

Cuba will this weekend host the powerful Group of 77 (G77) and China in which more than a hundred delegations from a membership of 134 nations will be in attendance.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez at a press conference in Havana on Wednesday September 13 outlining plans for hosting the powerful Group of 77 (G77) and China this weekend.Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez confirmed on Wednesday during a press conference that the G77 and  China Summit will take place in Havana on 15 and 16 September, prior to the high-level meeting.

Dozens of heads of state and government, as well as leaders of international organisations and bodies, including UN Secretary General António Guterres, will attend, the foreign minister said.

More than 90 Member States have registered to speak at the summit at the Palacio de Convenciones, a demonstration of the interest in the event, which focuses on the current challenges of development: the role of science, technology and innovation.

This central theme, said Rodríguez Parrilla, is of great relevance for the 134 members of the G77 and China, and will lead to “a high-level, substantial debate, with forceful pronouncements on the most pressing political and economic issues for developing nations in the midst of the systemic international crisis”.

The foreign minister explained that the summit seeks to debate the main challenges and core issues of the nations of the South. It will be a broadly participatory event, attended by high-level delegations that will be received with the greatest hospitality by the Cuban people, he added.

Cubans, he said, will welcome the visitors with their proverbial affection and high level of information on the issues of the international situation, while following the event minute by minute through the media and social networks.

The Summit of the Group of 77 and China, to be held next Friday and Saturday in this capital, will be austere, but with a profound presence of Cuban culture and broad participation of the people, who have contributed to its preparation, said the Cuban foreign minister.

The foreign minister pointed out that the organisation of the event required a great effort due to the difficult conditions of the Cuban economy as a result of the tightening of the blockade imposed by the United States for more than 60 years, the effects of the covid-19 pandemic and the world economic and social crisis.

Last January, Cuba assumed the pro-tempore presidency of the G77 and China, with a membership of 134 nations where 80 percent of the world’s population lives.

Since then, the island has developed an intense agenda to put into practice the vision defended by this mechanism, the broadest and most diverse in the multilateral sphere.

G77 Declaration and China will address the demands of the South

The Palacio de Convenciones, HavanaForeign Minister Rodríguez Parrilla  told the media, that the draft final declaration of the G77 and China Summit includes the purposes and principles of the group and addresses the needs of developing countries.

The document, which is expected to be approved on the second day of the meeting scheduled for next Friday and Saturday at the Havana Convention Palace, is a “progressive text, of universal scope, with a positive and constructive tone,” he said.

The declaration, he added, is loyal to the purposes and principles of the group, attentive to the needs of developing countries and firmly attached to the demand for the right to development in the midst of an increasingly exclusive, inequitable, unjust and plundering international order.

During a press conference on Wednesday in the press room of the event, for which 500 national and foreign journalists were accredited, the foreign minister stressed that the document was conceived during “a broad, participatory, harmonious and constructive negotiation process”.

He revealed that the text makes a general and critical outline of the main obstacles to the development of the nations of the South and calls for the establishment of a new international economic order, while calling for a profound reform of the world’s financial architecture.

It also calls for the proper treatment of the growing foreign debt, the fulfilment of international commitments on official development assistance, which are a moral obligation of the industrialised countries, and financing for the fight against climate change.

“These and other issues are part of the historical and new demands of the countries of the South,” said Rodríguez Parrilla, adding that the document also contains several proposals for action, such as holding regular meetings of high-level authorities on science, technology and innovation.

The summit’s expected final declaration calls for strengthening South-South cooperation in these areas, calls for a high-level meeting on the subject at the UN and proposes declaring an international day of science, technology and innovation in the South. (WiredJA).