Palestine takes over chairmanship of Group of 77 and China from Egypt

Xinhua Published: 2019-01-16 09:14:12
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Palestine on Tuesday took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China from Egypt at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Palestine is slated to lead the bloc for 2019.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R), on behalf of the chair of the Group of 77 and China for 2018, hands over the gavel to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of the chair of the Group of 77 and China for 2019, during a handover ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York, on Jan. 15, 2019. Palestine on Tuesday took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China from Egypt at the United Nations headquarters in New York.[Photo: Xinhua]

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R), on behalf of the chair of the Group of 77 and China for 2018, hands over the gavel to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of the chair of the Group of 77 and China for 2019, during a handover ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York, on Jan. 15, 2019. Palestine on Tuesday took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China from Egypt at the United Nations headquarters in New York.[Photo: Xinhua]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China, a coalition of 134 mainly developing nations, on behalf of Palestine, a non-member observer state of the United Nations.

He was handed the gavel by Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at the ceremony.

"I am pleased to take over today the chairmanship of the Group of 77 on behalf of the Palestinian people and the State of Palestine," said Abbas.

"It is a great responsibility that the State of Palestine will bear with complete humility, sincerity and dedication," he added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the ceremony that the Group of 77 and China demonstrated strong leadership throughout 2018 and proved once again to be a central force in demonstrating that "multilateralism is the only way to address our shared challenges."

The G77, which got its name from 77 founding members, is a group of 133 developing countries at the United Nations. China aligns itself with the group, whose aim is to promote collective economic interests of the members and to try to have a bigger say in the world organization.

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