Intervention by Mariyam Midhfa Naeem, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the 37th Annual Meeting of Senior Officials of the Group of 77 and China
22 September 2025, New York
Thank you, Chair.
We thank the Delegation of Iraq for their leadership of the Group, and the efforts made to achieve consensus on the draft Ministerial Declaration.
We are happy to note that the Declaration reflects many of the key achievements the Group was able to realise this past year. This includes important technical updates to the language in climate change, biodiversity, and ocean paragraphs, and in the external debt, and debt sustainability paragraphs.
My delegation however, regrets that the Group was not able to push forward for more ambitious language in the text – especially on those relating to debt.
My delegation would like to recall the words from the founding document for the Group: The Charter of Algiers.
“The representatives of developing countries… united by common aspirations and the identity of their economic interests, and determined to pursue their joint efforts towards economic and social development…deem it our duty to call the attention of the international community…”
What is clear is:
Our genesis lies in confronting the structural barriers that constrain developing economies;
Our aim was to elevate our collective standing through cooperation and pooled bargaining power; and
Our purpose was to secure a rebalanced international economic order that corrects entrenched inequities and delivers impactful gains for developing countries.
Today, debt has become one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable development in our countries. According to the World Bank, 64 G77 Member States – that is nearly half of us - are at risk of debt distress in 2024. Successive catastrophes, disasters, pandemics, have resulted in external debt of developing countries quadrupling in 2 decades, to a record $11.4 trillion in 2023, nearly 100% of export earnings. Countries are increasingly being forced to choose between debt repayments and funding essential services, or public sector investments.
As individual countries, we are doing our best, lobbying, negotiating, and increasingly, pleading for relief. But there is so much we can do on our own.
Where else should we go – other than this Group, which was formed to bargain collectively on issues of concern for developing countries?
Who else should we turn to, other than developing countries, who we know understands our situation better than anyone else?
This is why we would have liked to see more progressive language on the matter – especially on debt relief for resilience building, debt swaps for sustainable development, and strengthening sovereign debt architecture.
We recognise that this is an issue on which the Group has not had sufficient time to discuss internally and therefore is an issue that the Group does not have a position on. But we believe that the negotiations for this Ministerial Declaration are the very starting point for these very important discussions and would be a springboard from which we can build a group position, going into the Second Committee of this UNGA. We hope that in the future, we would be able to collectively work together to form positions on current and emerging issues for all of us, as envisioned in our founding principles.
Mr Chair,
On Para 146bis, the Maldives supports the retention of this paragraph, noting the significance of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. While we would ideally like to see the text retained as a whole, the Maldives could be flexible to streamline the paragraph, as we would prefer to have the paragraph, rather than lose it.
The Advisory Opinion was a hard-won victory for many developing countries. It reaffirms the crucial principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. It recognises that States have a duty to co-operate with each other in good faith to prevent significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment. And it recognizes that States parties to the Paris Agreement have obligations of adaptation and co-operation, including through technology and financial transfers.
Again, these sentiments align with the core principles of our Group.
On Para 295, we support closing the paragraph with the minor edit. But we are flexible on this.
On the issue of the Chagos Archipelago, the Maldives disassociates from paragraph 400 and 400bis of the draft Ministerial Declaration. The Government of Maldives is conducting an assessment and review of judgments of ITLOS on this matter, and on the decisions taken by the previous Government of Maldives in relation to this issue. In this regard, the Maldives cannot accept the language proposed in paragraph 400 and 400bis as they are in the draft. This is consistent with our position on the issue of the Chagos Archipelago, in previous years.
The Maldives remains committed to upholding the solidarity and unity of the Group, and in that regard, can join consensus on the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration. We hope that Member States can show similar flexibility and solidarity with members of the Group, on key issues, such as on raising ambition to achieve sustainable development, to combat climate change, and to mobilise financing for development.
I thank you.
