Your Excellencies:
On behalf of the Cuban people and Government, I deeply thank the Group of 77 plus China for the trust placed in Cuba to preside this year over such a broad and representative universe of nations.
We also commend the praiseworthy work carried out by Pakistan at the head of the Group during 2022.
We are highly honored to represent this diverse and vibrant grouping in times of monumental challenges for developing countries.
We do so with total dedication and a proven commitment that we will never let down nations with whom we share a history of abuses to which our peoples were subjected, and with whom we also share common goals and hopes.
We are truly proud of the valuable heritage that we have managed to forge as a Group in almost six decades of existence, as much as we are impressed by the road ahead of us to see our genuine, common and historic claims come true. We will fight for them with the certainty that, in diversity, we share the same aspiration to live in a better and fairer world.
Our nations continue to be at the rearguard of global development, while bearing the consequences of the multiple crises and inequalities resulting from the current unjust international order.
We are talking about a profoundly undemocratic order designed to perpetuate the imbalance which, despite the historical demands of the countries of this Group, sustains the wealth of a few at the expense of the impoverishment of the majority, by keeping the peoples at economic and social disadvantage, permanently condemned to underdevelopment, poverty and hunger.
This is not something we are saying for the first time. Since its founding in the promising decade of the 1960s, the Group of 77 has called for a change in the unjust global order to emerge from the conditions of absolute disadvantage in which centuries of colonialism and dependence have plunged us. And all the platforms will be too few to say so.
In 1979 the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution defined us with unforgettable words. Fidel Castro said: "If the Non-Aligned Countries Movement, which was initiated a few years earlier, came to be the political conscience of countries that were emerging from colonialism and neocolonialism and were trying to realize their full independence, the Group of 77 emerged as their economic conscience."
It is that consciousness that brought about unity among such diverse countries, regions, identities, cultures and levels of development. And history has confirmed the value of unity. From the first UNCTAD Conference, the Declaration on a New International Economic Order, through the Rio Summit, the special and differential treatment, the Official Development Assistance target, to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, we have been committed to it. The South has been the cornerstone of multilateral development negotiations.
We have acted together to make it clear that "The South also exists," as the Latin American poet Mario Benedetti wrote. And it is with the strength of the two-thirds of the world we represent that we have been able to make progress on certain objectives and ideals; but many substantial issues remain pending, to which are now added the problems of the post-pandemic world.
As the UN Secretary General has acknowledged to the Group of 77 plus China last September, "as we move towards the halfway point in the 2030 Agenda, far from improving, the world is moving backwards.
"The COVID-19 pandemic and an uneven recovery have cost us at least three years of progress, while developing countries are drowning in debt, with no fiscal space or access to financial resources to invest in recovery."
Today, more than ever, it is imperative to reach consensus on the issues that affect us as countries and as a group. Only by that path will we be able to come closer to the aspirations of the historically neglected peoples and their yearning for social justice.
Excellencies:
In these difficult and convulsive times, there is a proliferation of attempts to fracture the countries of the South. Let's give a lesson in unity! Let's demonstrate the value of cooperation and solidarity!
As proclaimed by Fidel, founder and tireless advocate of unity as an unavoidable premise of all actions: we must unite in these times to build the tomorrow we long for, to vindicate those who have always been excluded, to rescue faith in humanity!
Count on Cuba and its unwavering commitment to work tirelessly, together with all the members of this indispensable grouping, in the defense of the supreme interests of our nations.
Cuba is also counting on you and hopes that the spirit of unity and solidarity that gave birth to the Group of 77 plus China will prevail over the petty interests of those who seek to maintain the current unjust economic order immovable.
We firmly believe in multilateralism and in the immeasurable power of unity in diversity that Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, has defended as a banner and guide for the construction of the consensus that is indispensable to overcome the current challenges and build the just world to which we aspire.
It will always be the hour of unity, but today it is an imperative, the greatest of all urgencies! Let us take action to break, at last, the knots that hold back the possibilities of real progress for the peoples of the world. They have the right to a more humane, uplifting and dignified existence, and it is the duty of their leaders to fight for it. Yes we can!
Thank you very much.
Translated by ESTI
