The G77 meeting comes after key changes in global blocs
\nHAVANA
\nThe G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 percent of the world\u2019s population, kicked off a summit in Cuba Friday with a call to \u201cchange the rules of the game\u201d of the global order.
\nThe meeting comes at a time of growing frustration with the Western-led world order amid widening differences over the Russian war in Ukraine, the fight against climate change, and the global economic system.
\n\u201cAfter all this time that the North has organized the world according to its interests, it is now up to the South to change the rules of the game,\u201d Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said at the opening of the summit.
\nDiaz-Canel said that developing countries were the main victims of a \u201cmultidimensional crisis\u201d in the world today, from \u201cabusive unequal trade\u201d to global warming.
\nUnited Nations chief Antonio Guterres is joining some 30 heads of state and government from Africa, Asia and Latin America at the two-day summit in Havana.
\nAt the opening of the meeting he called for a world that was \u201cmore representative and responsive to the needs of developing economies\u201d, stressing that these countries were \u201ctrapped in a tangle of global crises.\u201d
\nThe bloc was established by 77 countries of the global South in 1964 \u201cto articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity,\u201d according to the group\u2019s website.
\nToday it has 134 members, among which the website lists China although the Asian giant says it is not a full member.
\nCuba took over the rotating presidency in January. Latin American leaders such as Venezuela\u2019s Nicolas Maduro, Colombia\u2019s Gustavo Petro, and Argentina\u2019s Alberto Fernandez were present at the summit, alongside Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Angola\u2019s Joao Lourenco and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.
\nBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived Friday night.
\nChina is represented by top Communist Party official Li Xi, who said his country \u201cwill always make South-South cooperation a priority\u201d in its dealings with the outside world.
\nArgentina\u2019s Fernandez said that the coronavirus pandemic marked an epochal change by \u201cexposing the inequality\u201d in countries\u2019 access to vaccines, noting that \u201c90 percent of vaccines were in the hands of 10 countries.\u201d
\nThe meeting should conclude Saturday with a statement underscoring \u201cthe right to development in an increasingly exclusive, unfair, unjust and plundering international order,\u201d the foreign minister of host Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez, told reporters on Wednesday.
\nA draft of the closing statement underlines the many obstacles facing developing nations, and includes \u201ca call for the establishment of a new economic world order,\u201d he said.
\nGuterres has recently attended a rash of multilateral summits, including a gathering of the G20 club of major economies in India and the BRICS group that includes Russia.
\nAhead of the Havana meeting, Guterres said \u201cthis multiplicity of summits reflects the growing multipolarity of our world.\u201d
\nAnd he warned that \u201cmultipolarity could be a factor for escalating geostrategic tensions, with tragic consequences.\u201d
\nThe G77 meeting comes after key changes in global blocs. The African Union has joined the G20 group of the world\u2019s most powerful economies, and the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — trade group for emerging economies has expanded to admit six new members.
\nThe presence of world leaders on its soil amounts to a recognition for the Cuban government even as the country battles its worst economic crisis in 30 years, one analyst told AFP.
\n\u201cDespite the difficulties of the moment, Cuba has been recognized as a valid interlocutor,\u201d said Cuban international relations expert Arturo Lopez-Levy, a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
\nThe communist-ruled island is still under the yoke of US sanctions first imposed in 1962.
\nDiaz-Canel has in recent months represented the G77+China at several international meetings including a June global financial summit in Paris and an EU meeting in July with Latin American and Caribbean states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The G77 meeting comes after key changes in global blocs HAVANA The G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 percent of the world\u2019s population, kicked off a summit in Cuba Friday with a call to \u201cchange the rules of the game\u201d of the global order. The meeting comes at a time of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n