Mr. President,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the G77 and China.

The G77 and China recalls with satisfaction the historic day on which we formally adopted the text of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

That day was extremely important for biodiversity because of after almost 20 years since the beginning of discussions for the conservation of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, we adopted an essential agreement for the imperative governance of biodiversity in more than 45 percent of the Earth. It has been said that this successful result has been a victory of diplomacy and multilateralism. In fact, that has been the case.

The text we are celebrating again has been first and foremost a victory of developing countries, which stood together to shape an ambitious and very progressive treaty.

The force of developing countries, united in the Group of 77 and China, is the reason why the treaty we are seeing today is totally different from the version that was almost closed in last August, 2022. It was the strength of this Group that made possible the insertion of a truly balanced model of benefit sharing from the utilization of marine genetic resources and digital sequence information.

In a similar way, it is to be credited to developing countries the inclusion of the principle of common heritage of humankind in the final agreement, which is a fundamental conception that needs to be rooted in every action in the high seas, including scientific research activity. Since the very beginning of the Intergovernmental Conferences on BBNJ until the very last hours of negotiation, developing countries had to struggle to introduce this notion that certainly represents a progress in terms of international law.

These cases are just some of the two major achievements attributable to developing countries. In the same manner, the areas of capacity building, funding arrangements and many of the provisions in cross-cutting issues were shaped by the delegations of our Group.

Mr. President,

It has been an honor for Cuba to lead the Group of 77 and China during this last and decisive stage of the BBNJ negotiations. We spared no efforts or energies to give the best of ourselves to the Group, and in return, we have received a commitment towards the unity that remained solid until the end of this process.

We are deeply grateful for the support we have received from all members of the Group. We emphasize that without the unwavering commitment of all members of the Group, the achievement of our goals would not have been possible.

Now, a new path is opened for the establishment of the BBNJ regime. We are very pleased to realize that 91 Member States have signed the Agreement as of today.

We also encourage the international community to broadly support the ratification campaign to ensure the rapid entry into force of the treaty, and these efforts should be ensured by a significant mobilization of resources to guarantee essential support to developing countries to build the necessary capacities to enable them to ratify the instrument.

A new era for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans starts today. We, from the Group of 77 and China, are proud of our contribution to that.

I thank you.