President of the Argentine Republic, Alberto Fernandez delivers his address during the 77th General Debate inside the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 20 September 2022. | Photo: EFE/EPA/Peter Foley

United Nations, September 21 (RHC)-- The President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, affirmed at the United Nations that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest countries.

"The pandemic revealed the enormous inequalities suffered by the world's population," said the President in New York during the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.  During his speech, Fernández asked whether it was fair "that the fortunes of only ten men represent more than the income of 40 percent of the world's population".

In this regard, he asked whether it is ethical that the pandemic has claimed four times more lives in the poorest countries than in the richest.  "Not denouncing this model of accumulation that concentrates income in a few while millions are submerged in poverty can make us accomplices in consolidating so much inequality," he said.

Fernández warned that the world must learn the lesson or "we will be heading towards ever greater confrontational situations."  In stating the need for a cooperative multilateralism that strengthens the rule of law, the President assured that only in this way will it be possible to "stop several of the threats facing humanity."

"The injustices we observe will only worsen if extreme positions are installed, if wars are sustained over time, deepening hunger and if a persistent inflation ends up corroding the income of the weakest," he said.

With this approach, the Argentine head of state called for the abandonment of "the economic and financial practices that the developed world requires the world that is trying to develop to comply with."  "To sustain this present, will only increase poverty and marginality," he warned.

In his speech, Fernandez also highlighted that "indebted nations suffer much more the effects of the established system."  "Argentina is among them.  For that reason, I want to thank all the States that supported us and continue to support us in the complex process of renegotiating our foreign debt."