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Cuba has promised “total support” to President Yoweri Museveni after assuming the leadership of the Group of 77 and China (G77+China) on behalf of Uganda on Sunday, January 21. 

Cuba’s Vice President, Salvador Valdes Mesa, made this promise while handing over the rotating one-year chairmanship of the bloc at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. 

He handed over the chair of the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries in the United Nations to Museveni in a symbolic ceremony at the official opening of the bloc’s 3rd South Summit.  

“Today, we pass on the baton to our sister nation Uganda. Uganda can always count on the total support of Cuba,” Mesa said. 

He acknowledged Museveni’s leadership in promoting peace and stability in Africa and the entire world. 

G77+China was established in June 1964 and currently has over 130 member states, with its chairmanship rotating among member countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America based on regional principles. 

China is not a member but has been supporting and cooperating with the group under the framework of “G77 and China”. 

Mesa said Cuba's leadership of the G77+ China in several international meetings has allowed us to make the interests of the developing countries heard in this critical forum. 

“The Group has been a key player in different UN negotiations including those on sustainable development. It has also been involved in preparations for the Summit of the future,” he added. 

Museveni told the summit that Uganda’s chairmanship will strive to further promote and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, scaling up action on climate change and biodiversity loss and strengthening international tax cooperation, among others. 

The 2030 Agenda was launched by a UN Summit in New York in September 2015 to end poverty in all its forms.  

The G77+ China provides the means for the countries of the Global South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the UN system, and promote South-South cooperation for development. 

It was established by 77 developing countries, signatories of the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries” which was issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva.