By Maylín Vidal
From Cuba and towards the world, the G77 countries and China staged a \n historic summit, in which they launched a message of unity to those who today hope to continue imposing imperialist rules.
"It is time for the South to change the rules of the game", was one of the phrases coined by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who hosted a hundred heads of state and government for two days in the capital's Palacio de las Convenciones.
At the meeting, the countries of the bloc agreed on the urgent need to achieve an inclusive financial architecture.
With a view to the United Nations General Assembly, which will get underway on Tuesday, multiple views, cultures and voices (Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean) in Havana acknowledged that the Global South has many challenges ahead, but that together they can cooperate on key issues such as the one that moved this meeting: the development of science, technology and innovation.
A final document outlined the lines of work to be carried forward until the next Summit of the South, to be held next year in Kampala, Uganda, in which the members of this mechanism, comprising 134 nations, ratified their willingness to strengthen their role in the current international context.
As the capital of the voices of the South, in Havana the Group of 77 (G77) and China reinforced the need to create coordination strategies to fight against imperial forms of domination. In this regard, they made clear their rejection of the imposition of laws and regulations with extraterritorial impact and coercive economic measures, which they called for their immediate elimination.
In the final adoption of the 47-point document, they considered that such actions not only undermine the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and international law, but constitute a serious obstacle to the advancement of science, technology and innovation and the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries.
Meanwhile, from the Caribbean, many of its members called for greater collaboration and financing to enable progress to be made in their countries, which have been hit by natural disasters. Meanwhile, those from Africa called for real reform to accommodate opportunities for the benefit of the Global South in the face of the historical disparity in access to scientific and technological knowledge.
Asian voices were also heard, including that of China, which advocated placing development at the center of the international agenda and giving greater representation to the countries of the South.
Speeches by several presidents such as Luis Inácio Lula Da Silva (Brazil), Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela), Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Xiomara Castro (Honduras), among others, marked the routes to follow with Latin America's commitment to work together.
Cuba, as the protagonist of the meeting, also received a great accolade. Several nations expressed their unanimous condemnation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the island for more than 60 years, and praised its example in scientific development, despite this unilateral siege.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, present at the meeting, also praised the role of the island as host and agreed on the importance of access to science, technology and innovation for the promotion of the countries of the South.
The Havana Summit left a trail of important moments. The gigantic official photo, with the representation of a hundred delegations, endorsed a moment of unity from a single voice: that of the Global South.
