CubaMinrex. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Felipe Pérez Roque, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba to the 32nd Annual Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77 at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 26, 2009

Mr. President:

Allow me, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, to congratulate the Foreign Minister of Sudan on his country’s election to the Presidency of the Group of 77 and China in New York for the year 2009.

The economic and social situation of most of the 130 countries making up the Group of 77 and China has become more complex since our last meeting. Inequality is growing in the world and billions of people are still living in poverty, starving, unemployed and with no access to health services.

It was thus that we evaluated it recently at the 15th Ministerial NAM Meeting held in Teheran.

The poverty is a result of centuries of colonialism and neo-colonialism and of the effect of an increasingly unjust and unequal economic order.

The food, energy and financial crisis, climate change and the deterioration of the environment are the variables contributing to postponing the fulfillment of the modest goals laid out at the Millennium Summit which, we must clearly say, will not be fulfilled.

Let us look at just a few examples:

We set ourselves the goal of cutting in half, by the year 2015, the figure of 1276 million human beings living in extreme poverty in 1990. However, there are still 2.6 billion people, that is, 40% of the world population, who are subsisting on less than two dollars a day.

We had agreed to half, by 2015, the 842 million starving people in the world in the year 2000. However, the number of malnourished persons in the world had grown to 854 million. Of these, 96% live in our countries. In addition, malnutrition and world food insecurity are seen as being especially aggravated by the unprecedented increase in food prices, originating in the decrease of world reserves, irresponsible speculation with the prices of these commodities, droughts and floods in important food producing regions, the high prices of oil and a growing tendency to direct lands and resources to the production of agro-fuels.

We proclaimed the hope of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015. This noble and crucial goal won’t be met either. In the year 2015, we will still have 47 million children who will not be attending primary school, while only one out of every 5 secondary school-aged children will be enrolled in schools.

We aimed to reduce by two-thirds infant mortality rate under the age of five by the year 2015. However, according to current tendencies, this goal may only be attained after the year 2045.

The situation may worsen yet further. There is absolutely no reason to make an optimistic evaluation about current events.

On the other hand, realistic and sustainable solutions to matters dealt with at the Monterrey Consensus are constantly being postponed. Financing for development continues being a chimera as shown by recent negotiations for the Follow-Up Meeting to be held in Doha.

We are only two months away from that Conference. However, after almost seven years, the principal reason why, far from advancing, we are regressing, is that developed nations lack the political will to honor their commitments and contribute new and unconditional financial resources to implement the programs that would allow us to meet the goals agreed upon in matters of development.

Why is it that those who are now so pressed to obtain the $700 billion to bailout companies and banks which have been irresponsibly speculating in the financial markets are not so keen on finding the funds that would save the lives of almost 30 thousand destitute children dying every day in the world?

Today over a trillion dollars are spent in military build-up. Barely 15% of the total of the resources spent on these items would suffice to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Our countries continue to be the source of financial outflow to the rich, developed countries. We are poor so that they can waste. From the year 2000, the net transfers of resources from developing countries towards the industrialized world have increased more than threefold. Just last year, they reached the record figure of 650 billion dollars.

The developed countries are the masters of money, investment, markets and technology. Of every 100 new patents, 86 are coming from developed countries. The gap is widening, not shrinking.

The developed countries are not in the least embarrassed to have failed in their commitment to Official Development Aid.

The international trade system imposed prevents our development and makes us more dependent. Just in terms of tariffs, the developing countries must pay 100 billion dollars every year so that our products are allowed into the overprotected markets of the wealthy countries. At the same time, these spend 300 billion dollars annually in subsidies to their agricultural products.

Mr. President:

Under the real threat of the accelerated global climate change, whose main cause rests in the unsustainable consumption patterns of the industrialized nations, it would seem unlikely that by the year 2015 we could succeed reversing the world deterioration of environmental resources.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is alive and well.

Nevertheless, our countries, which are the less responsible for contamination, are the ones facing the greatest dangers and the most dramatic consequences of this situation. The recent hurricanes hitting the Caribbean, more often and intensely, are proof of this.

These are the tough realities of the present day. In order to reverse them, we must set ourselves the goal of taking up again the agenda which was launched almost 35 years ago by the underdeveloped countries in order to achieve a new international economic order.

Cuba will soon present an initiative directed to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration and the Action Program for the establishment of the new international economic order, with the goal of bringing about an open and inclusive high level debate on the complex economic and social challenges of today’s world and the alternatives to tackle them.

We hope that the delegations of the Group of 77 and China will support this initiative.

One of the aims of the Cuban Presidency of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has been to work in a coordinated fashion with the Presidency of the Group of 77 and China, so as to uphold a common agenda and harmonize our positions.

We recognize and appreciate the decisive contribution of Antigua and Barbuda, as the President of the Group of 77, to the advance in the work of the Joint Coordination Committee.

Cuba believes it is indispensable to continue to deepen unity and solidarity among member states in defense of our common interests. Nothing will be given to us for free. We shall only have what we can conquer together.

Thank you very much.

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