The G77+China summit in Havana is a platform for developing countries to voice their frustration with the Western-dominated international order. They face multiple challenges from the Russian war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the global economic system.
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged the Global South to “change the rules of the game” after centuries of exploitation and inequality by the rich North. He said developing countries were suffering from a “multidimensional crisis” caused by “abusive unequal trade” and environmental degradation.
“It is time for the South to change the rules of the game, after all this time that the North has organised the world according to its interests,” Diaz-Canel said at the opening of the summit. The G77+China bloc represents 80 percent of the world’s population. The summit is attended by 30 heads of state and government from Africa, Asia and Latin America, including Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas, Angola’s Joao Lourenco, and Mozambique’s Filipe Nyusi.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also joined the meeting and called for a more inclusive and responsive world order that meets the needs of developing economies. He warned that nations were “trapped in a tangle of global crises”. He said the world was failing developing countries, who still struggle with poverty, hunger, inflation, climate disasters and debt, despite their efforts to improve their living standards. “The conclusion is clear: The world is failing developing countries,” Guterres said in Spanish. The G77+China group was founded by 77 countries of the Global South in 1964 to promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity, according to the group’s website.
