Group 77 plus China
by Maria Josefina Arce
The year 2023 began with great satisfaction and responsibility for Cuba. During this year, it will hold the pro tempore presidency of the Group of 77+China, an organization of broad and diverse political concertation.
The unanimous election of the largest of the Antilles is undoubtedly a recognition of its prestige and the authority it has earned in the international sphere. And also to its decades of work in favor of the interests of the countries of the South, which, as Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez rightly said, carry on their backs the burden of poverty, underdevelopment, debt and centuries of colonial exploitation.
This is the first time that the Caribbean nation holds this responsibility, which was made known within the framework of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, whose main segment was held from September to December last year.
Havana described the Group of 77+China as strategic and decisive, a pillar it affirmed it will preserve during its pro tempore presidency this year.
Created in 1964 by members of the Non-Aligned Movement, this important bloc within the UN has for decades given voice to the dispossessed against an unjust, exploitative and exclusive international order.
More than two thirds of the UN member countries are members of this group, which is distinguished by values such as unity, solidarity and cooperation.
Cuba has had an intense participation in this mechanism, which represents 80% of the world's population, and which in its more than 50 years of creation has sought to be a counterweight to the world's major economic powers.
In various international forums, the archipelago has defended the right of the South to the most basic human rights, as well as world and regional peace and stability.
It has brought its solidarity aid to many of the nations that make up the group, in the face of natural disasters and to provide medical assistance to the most vulnerable sectors. A position that it maintained before the incidence of COVID 19 in the world, despite the tightening of the U.S. blockade by the administration of the now former President Donald Trump.
Precisely, our country has received the unconditional support of the organization in its struggle for the lifting of the genocidal U.S. siege, which causes pain and suffering to Cuban families.
Cuba faces many challenges, given the complex world scenario, marked by an economic crisis, high food prices, shortages of raw materials and consumer goods and armed conflicts.
But Cuba will undoubtedly exercise its pro tempore presidency of the Group of 77+China with total seriousness and responsibility, from where it will continue to fight for the respect of the right of the most humble to live in peace and build fairer societies.
