Pakistan will hand over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China to Cuba on Thursday after completing it’s one-year term during which the world grappled with multiple economic and financial crises that especially affected the developing countries adversely.
These crises included the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, growing impacts of climate change, economic imbalances and rising debt distress, commodity price shocks and food insecurity, and persistent fragility and conflict—with the war in Ukraine currently exacerbating many deteriorating trends.
A founding member of G-77, which promotes the developing countries’ collective economic interests at the UN, Pakistan took over the chairmanship of G-77 from Guinea on January 14, 2022. Pakistan has held G77’s chairmanship four times — in 1976, 1992, 2007 and 2022.
Tomorrow’s handover ceremony will take place in the Trusteeship Council chamber where the baton will be transferred to Cuba. The programme includes a video statement by Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari followed by remarks, also by video-link, by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez.
Also addressing the high-level event will be, among others, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi.
Other group members will also make statements. Under Pakistan’s chairmanship, the Group has been instrumental in maintaining development at the heart of the United Nations and focus of development partners towards the triple crises faced by the developing countries.