On Friday, Cuba will host an extraordinary summit of the Group of 77 + China, which brings together more than a hundred countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, and which aims to promote a new, less “unjust” international order.
More than thirty heads of state and government will attend the high-level meeting on September 15-16 in Havana, including Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Brazil; From Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The group, which was established by 77 countries in 1964, has expanded to include 134 countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, while China is participating externally and will be represented at this summit by Li Shi, who is responsible for monitoring discipline within the Communist Party of China.
Since Cuba assumed the interim presidency last January, Havana has appealed to the “unity” of its members to fight “the petty interests of those who seek to keep the current unfair economic system in place.”
Guterres will open the meeting after attending several international meetings in recent weeks, such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meeting in August in Johannesburg, which expanded with six new members.
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Last week in New Delhi, I attended a summit of major economies, the G20, which concluded with divisions over Ukraine and climate change.
“This multiplicity of summits reflects the increasing multipolarity of our world,” Guterres told reporters at the end of July.
The conclave in Havana will address “Current development challenges: the role of science, technology and innovation.”
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Guterres announced at the time that in Cuba, “I will focus on putting the 2030 agenda back on track,” which seeks to combat poverty and damage to the environment. As well as “using science and technology for good and ensuring multilateralism” that benefits all countries.
He added, “The Group of 77 is the voice of the Global South, and it is the largest group of countries on the international scene.”
As interim president, Miguel Díaz-Canel represented the G77+China at several international forums, including the Latin American-EU summit in July in Brussels and another leaders’ meeting a month ago in Paris, where they discussed how to strengthen the G77+China. The new international financial model
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For the communist island, which is going through the worst economic crisis in three decades, the presence of heads of state and government from different regions of the world represents an opportunity to deploy its diplomatic capabilities.
“Despite the extremely serious situation that puts even the government’s ability to run the country in a state of uncertainty” so that the population has “minimal levels of survival”, high debts, unprecedented social protests and large-scale migration, helping these Leaders represent Arturo Lopez Levy, a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, told AFP: “This is considered a boost for the Cuban government.”
“It is difficult not to acknowledge that despite the difficulty of the moment, Cuba has been recognized as a valid interlocutor,” the international relations expert added.
The summit is scheduled to conclude on Saturday with a joint declaration.
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