Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, the Chair of Group of 77 (G77) has ended his four-day visit to Uganda to ascertain Uganda’s readiness to host the 3rd South Summit (G77+ China) scheduled to take place at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala from 21st-23rd January 2024 under the theme “Leaving No One Behind.”
According to Ambassador Pedroso, his visit together with other delegates was aimed at checking on the preparations Uganda has made to host the high level international summit in 2024.
“We are not here to make any assessment but we are just here on a fact finding mission to check on the venue of the event in Uganda and the preparations for hosting a very important summit in 2024,” he said.
The Ambassador said he is very honored to be in Uganda and appreciated the work being done by the Government in ensuring a successful hosting of the G77 summit.
While addressing the press at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, May 18, 2023, Ambassador Pedroso said that the 3rd South summit is a very important event of the South. He added that the first summit was hosted in Havana, Cuba in 2000 while the second one was held in Doha, Qatar five years later, in 2005.
He said that the summit was meant to take place every after five years but the third summit will be held in Uganda after a very long period.
The Ambassador revealed that it was found necessary to have the summit because of several global challenges currently being faced after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that affected the whole world with an aim of addressing these challenges.
“The summit is aimed at discussing the global economic challenges of the south, not only for today but also in the future like climate change, the pandemic that affected the south especially the African continent,” he added.
The summit will also look at the 2000 ferry global agenda for sustainable development by focusing on a number of sustainable goals. Adding that the summit in Kampala will be critical for the South to develop a common mission on how countries will unite and fight the future pandemic and other related challenges, and ensuring a better future generation by is basing on science and technology innovations.
The Ambassador said that he is optimistic that the event will be a success and it will not only benefit Uganda but Africa at large.
The State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem said that he was pleased that the visiting program entailed visiting some of the tourist sites particularly the Source of the Nile which is the longest fresh water river in the world, and appreciating Uganda’s flora and fauna.
He said that Uganda was meant to host the 3rd summit in Kampala from 17th-19th April 2020, but was put on hold by the Ambassadorial representatives that met in New York on March 4, 2020 due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
The G77 plus China which was established on June 1, 1964 is the biggest negotiating group at the UN with a membership of 135 member States of the UN. Its name is derived from the Joint Declaration of the seventy- seven Developing countries that was issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, and Uganda is among.
