MINSK, 26 September (BelTA) – Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei participated in the first Ministerial Meeting of Like-Minded Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries hosted at the UN headquarters in New York on 23 September, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The meeting was conducted on the initiative and under the chairmanship of the Foreign Ministers of Belarus and Costa Rica,” the press service said.
According to the ministry, the participants of the meeting agreed to conduct active joint work in the UN to systematically promote the interests of middle-income countries in the field of sustainable development. The Ministers identified specific areas of such activities within the UN system and ways to raise the general public awareness to the developmental needs and perspectives of middle-income countries. By Belarus' proposal, the meeting adopted the Ministerial Declaration which sets the goals, objectives and working modalities of the Like-Minded Group.
In his statement, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei noted the importance and timeliness of joining the efforts of most active supporters of middle-income countries to uphold their collective interests. The Belarusian minister called this move a landmark event, which launched a new process in the UN and demonstrated the capability of countries to unite on the basis of common goals and interests.
Vladimir Makei emphasized that Belarus would continue to initiate and support proposals contributing to dialogue and mutual understanding in the most relevant areas of the activity of the United Nations.
The meeting was attended by Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other high representatives of Belarus, Armenia, Vietnam, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Thailand, the Philippines, Chile, Ecuador, and Jamaica. President of the UN General Assembly Peter Thomson and President of the UN Economic and Social Council Frederick Shava (Zimbabwe) joined the meeting as guests.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the participants of the meeting with a video message, in which he stressed the crucial role of middle-income countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.
The category of middle-income countries comprises more than a hundred states that are home to most of the world's population. Middle-income countries account for more than a third of global GDP and a quarter of world's exports and imports. About 70% of the world's poor live in these countries. Earlier in 2016 Belarus, Costa Rica and several other countries initiated the establishment of a separate group of like-minded supporters at the UN headquarters to defend the interests of this category of countries.
