Your Excellency Foreign Minister Rodríguez,

Dear Colleagues,

This year, under the chairmanship of Cuban, G77 and China has further strengthened solidarity and cooperation, and maintained close communication and coordination, thus effectively safeguarding the common interests of developing countries. We applaud the leadership of Cuban and express our congratulations on the successful Havana summit. At the same time, I wish to congratulate Uganda for assuming the chairmanship of 2024. You can count on China’s active support in promoting fruitful outcomes of the third South Summit. 

This year is the mid-term review for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet many of the SDGs have suffered from slow progress, and developing countries are facing mounting challenges. The unfair and unreasonable international economic order, together with the unilateralism and protectionism policies, the hegemonic and bullying practices by Western countries, have made the situation even worse for developing countries. In this context, G77 and China should stay united in our cooperation for common development, uphold fairness, justice, and common interests, join hands in addressing external challenges, and together bring the 2030 Agenda back on track.

First, we should pursue people-centered development and prioritize development issues on the international agenda and in the UN’s work. We should continue to urge developed countries to earnestly meet their ODA and climate financing commitments, and urge them to support developing countries in addressing such challenges as absolute poverty, food security, energy security, and climate change. We should establish more action-oriented South-South cooperation platforms, so as to promote strength through unity for the global South.

Second, we should redouble our efforts to reform the international financial architecture and strengthen the representation and voice of developing countries in global economic governance. We should accelerate the governance reform of the IMF and World Bank, and improve the operational and financing capacity and efficiency of international financial institutions. We should improve the effective use of reserve assets, such as SDRs, increase investment in public goods that are urgently needed by developing countries, and ask multilateral and private-sector creditors to jointly participate in debt treatment.

Third, we should advocate greater macroeconomic policy coordination and building an open world economy. We should firmly safeguard free trade and the multilateral trading system, and ensure the stable and unimpeded flow of the international industrial and supply chains, so that all countries can benefit fairly from economic globalization. We should urge developed countries to adopt responsible fiscal and monetary policies, so as to reduce their negative spillover effects. We should also resolutely reject unilateralism and protectionism, oppose decoupling, cutting chains, or building walls, as well as irrational suppression of other countries’ technological advancement, and promote connectivity and integrated development among countries.

As a member of the developing world and global South, China has always stood in solidarity with fellow developing countries through thick and thin. The Belt and Road Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping, have contributed China’s wisdom to world peace and development and built important platforms for us to deepen South-South cooperation. China will continue to share development experience and opportunities with fellow developing countries. Together, let’s translate the 2030 Agenda from vision into reality, and build a community with a shared future for humankind.

Thank you.