Participants at the meeting (Source: UN) The event was attended by UN Secretary-General AntonioGuterres, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi, and Under-Secretary-Generalfor Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin, among others.
Addressing the event, Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, PermanentRepresentative of Vietnam to the UN, underlined that without peace, SDGs willnot be achieved, adding that maintaining peace and stability is a prerequisitefor post-pandemic recovery and development.
The Vietnamese representative stressed the need to upholdthe spirit of peace, cooperation, transparency, openness, inclusiveness,equality and mutual benefit, and the respect to the principles of the UN Charterand international law, taking into account interests and culturaldiversity of member countries.
Ambassador Giang said developed countries should strengthen support to developingones in terms of science-technology, digital technology, infrastructuredevelopment, capacity improvement and financial resources. The diplomat highlighted the role of the UN development system in sharingknowledge and expertise to assist developing countries in implementing the 2030Agenda.
Regarding the operation of the Group of Friends in the timeto come, Ambassador Giang held that the concerns and interests of the member countriesshould be fully considered during the negotiation and decision-making processes.At the same time, in order to achieve substantial outcomes, the group shouldconsider a number of priority areas to focus on for each year, he said.
The Friends of Global Development Initiative was establishedin January 2022 at the proposal of China, with 53 members, to accelerate theimplementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Speaking at the event, Wang called for close coordination ofall countries to implement the GDI and resume global cooperation for the 2030Agenda, along with the creation of favourable conditions for development andthe reform of the global governance system to strengthen the representation ofdeveloping countries and promoting the building of an open economy. In addition,developed countries also need to fulfill their commitments to supportdevelopment and scale up financial and technological support to developingcountries, he said.
Guterres expressed his belief that the GDI will help speed upthe realisation of SDGs through the reform of the global financial system, climatechange response and green transformation commitments, and the promotion ofpeace and human rights and re-commitments to multilateralism./.
VNA
