The President of the General Assembly;
President of ECOSOC;
Excellencies;
Ladies and gentlemen,

1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

2. The Group would like to extend its appreciation to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation for organizing this important high-level commemoration of United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. This commemoration gives us an opportunity to recognize the important contribution of South-South Cooperation in socio-economic development in developing countries. Furthermore, it provides opportunities for countries of the Global South to create spaces for sharing their successful policy measures and experiences.

3. South-South Cooperation is a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the Global South. It is cooperation for development through exchanges of knowledge, skills, resources, technical knowhow, programs, projects, initiatives that help solve specific problems in countries of the global south. We reaffirm that South-South Cooperation and its agenda have to be set by countries of the South and should continue to be guided by the principles of respect for national sovereignty, national ownership and independence, equality, non-conditionality, non-interference in domestic affairs and mutual benefits.

4. Developing countries are increasingly turning to one another for partnership in regional trade, investment and financial, motivated in part by challenges presented by the world economy dominated by the north rich countries which continue to ignore the needs of developing countries. The South-South cooperation is an expression of growing economic strength by the global South, intra-south trade, outflows of foreign direct investment, increased choices and voice.

5. South-South Cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to North-South Cooperation. It is driven by the demand, capabilities, best practices and diversified cultures of developing countries and their individual and collective pursuit of sustained economic growth and development.

6. Global challenges have made the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals more difficult for many developing countries. Additionally, the numerous 'divides' between the North and South that now includes Artificial Intelligence threatens to exercebated the already existent development chasm between the developed and developing countries. There is need to institute mechanisms for catching up.

7. The Summit of the Future through its Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact seek to alleviate the above two challenges and position the Global South favorably to turbo charge the SDGs and focus resources to the implementation the 2030 Agenda.

8. The Group calls upon the United Nations development system to continue enhancing its support to South-South and triangular cooperation, at the request and with the ownership and leadership of the developing countries. We acknowledge the significant work by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation in this regard. The office has been crucial in building networks and increasing awareness across the UN system and among developing countries, of the various forms and instances of South-South Cooperation, helping our efforts to grow. We resolve our commitment to strengthen South-South Cooperation by implementing the actions as agreed by our political leaders, including those in the outcome document of third Summit held in Kampala, Uganda.

Thank you.