diplomacy
Group around Russia wants to block UN declarations
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters. photo
© Bebeto Matthews/AP/dpa
Corona pandemic, war in Ukraine, a debt crisis in poor countries: the UN sustainability goals have fallen seriously behind schedule. Shortly before the general debate, the situation threatens to worsen further.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the paper as a “quantum leap” to revitalize the development goals, which have fallen behind schedule. In addition to Russia, a corresponding letter from Sunday was signed by Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
“Legitimate concerns ignored”
In the letter to the President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, available to the German Press Agency, the eleven signatories complain about sanctions to which states are subject and which harm their development. During the negotiations on the declarations, “the legitimate concerns of a large number of developing countries were ignored.” Russia was hit with a series of punitive measures for its invasion of Ukraine.
The blockade could jeopardize the success of a summit that the United Nations considers to be of central importance and is attended by high-ranking officials. The declaration was actually supposed to be adopted unanimously and, among other things, support a reform of the international financial structure. With this, poor countries should be able to get cheaper loans and access to more money from the World Bank, among others.
Sustainability goals: extremely set back
In 2015, the world’s states set central goals for global development with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which aim to improve education and end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030. But the corona pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a debt crisis in poor countries have severely set back the achievement of the goals. It initially remained unclear how the United Nations would respond to the letter.