ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday said that the world is confronted with triple crises: Covid-19 pandemic, the challenge of realizing the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, and the existential threat of climate catastrophe.

Participating in the 45th ministerial meeting of Group of 77 and China, held in a virtual format, in which Pakistan was elected as the next chair of the group, the minister said that all the above mentioned challenges would have a disproportionate impact on the developing countries.

He said that an inclusive and equitable recovery from the current crisis would only be possible, if the developing countries are provided with adequate means, especially financial resources, to return to the path of sustained and sustainable economic growth.

He emphasised that the developing countries needed to promote a common development agenda to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

As the next chair of the Group of 77 and China, he added, Pakistan would work with the members of the group to promote such a development agenda, including debt restructuring, redistribution of the $650 billion new SDRs to developing countries, larger concessional financing, mobilisation of the $100 billion in annual climate finance by the developed countries, ending the billions in illicit financial flows from the developing countries and the return of their stolen assets; and the creation of an equitable and open trading system and a fair international tax regime.

The Group of 77, established in 1964, is the largest intergovernmental grouping of developing countries in the United Nations.

It provides the means for the countries of the Global South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests within the UN system.

Pakistan is a founding member of the Group and has had the distinct privilege to serve as its chair in New York on three occasions in the past.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021