Havana, September 18 (RHC)-- The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke Monday at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit, at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.

Through the social network X (formerly Twitter), Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez shared fragments of the president's speech on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, an organization whose pro tempore presidency is held by the largest Antillean island since last January.

Díaz-Canel considered it essential to set more ambitious goals in terms of mitigation, adaptation and the means to achieve them, as well as to materialize the delivery and mobilization of resources by developed countries to combat climate change and, at the same time, face our development challenges.

During his speech, the head of state also referred to the increase in hunger and poverty in the world, which interferes with the fulfillment of the SDGs.

"We will reach 2030 with 575 million people living in conditions of extreme poverty, by which time barely a third of the countries will manage to reduce national poverty levels by half," said the Cuban president.

He pointed out that 735 million citizens currently suffer from chronic hunger, a figure higher than in 2015.

"At this rate, none of the 17 SDGs can be achieved, and more than half of the agreed targets will be missed," he added.

Díaz-Canel arrived this Sunday in the United States to participate in the High-Level segment of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.