Cuban president spoke at SDG Summit at the United Nations

 

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 18 (ACN) Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, spoke today at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in New York City.

On X, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuban foreign minister, shared extracts of the Cuban leader's speech on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, an organization whose pro tempore presidency Cuba has held since last January.

Diaz-Canel considered it essential to define more ambitious goals in areas such as mitigation, adaptation and the means to achieve them, as well as to materialize the delivery and mobilization of resources by developed countries to combat climate change and, at the same time, face our development challenges, he remarked.

During his speech, the Caribbean head of state also referred to the increase in hunger and poverty in the world, which interferes with the fulfillment of the SDGs.

We will reach 2030 with 575 million people living in extreme poverty, by which time only a third of the countries will manage to reduce national poverty levels by half, said the President.

He noted that 735 million citizens currently suffer from chronic hunger, a figure higher than in 2015.

At this rate, none of the 17 SDGs can be achieved, and more than half of the agreed targets will be missed, he added.

"We will not eliminate hunger as we had agreed. On the contrary, 735 million people are chronically hungry today, more than in 2015. At this rate, none of the 17 SDGs can be achieved, and more than half of the agreed targets will be missed."

Diaz-Canel arrived on Sunday in the United States to participate in the High-Level Segment of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.