Distinguished co-facilitators, His Excellency Mr. Neville Gertze, Permanent Representative of Namibia, and Her Excellency Ms. Antje Leendertse, Permanent Representative of Germany,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the G-77 and China.

First, let me express the appreciation of our Group for your efforts in presenting us a proposal on the scope and elements of the Summit of the Future.

Although we welcome this opportunity to meet today under your auspices, the short time we have had to react to your proposal did not allow the Group to be ready to provide a comprehensive contribution on the substance of it.

On the process that we will follow to discuss your proposal, the Group would like to stress the following:

– The need to have open, transparent and inclusive intergovernmental consultations on the preparatory process of the Summit, as agreed to in OP 16 of resolution 76/307. In this regard, the Group insists on the need to have a detailed negotiation process to determine the scope and elements of the Summit of the Future.

– In order to prepare ourselves properly for those negotiations, the Group would kindly request the co-facilitators to provide a clear calendar that takes into account the need to give appropriate time for delegations to consult, meet within their respective groups and get their substantive inputs ready.

– Such calendar should also take into account the several ongoing negotiation processes, some of them closely related to several issues contained in your proposal, particularly the negotiations on the draft political declaration of the SDG Summit.

On the substance of the proposal, we would be only sharing very preliminary comments at this stage, taking into account the complexity of the issues included in the text and the need for appropriate time to be able to receive instructions from our capitals and coordinate our positions as a Group on issues of our interest.

In this regard, the Group has the following comments:

– From its beginning, the proposal should clearly reaffirm the United Nations Charter.

– We would like to emphasize that the link between the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future shall be clearly outlined in this text, since the proposal on the scope and elements of the Summit of the Future should necessarily take into account the outcome of the SDG Summit as an important input.

– In this regard, we underline that the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development commitments in general, with a view to achieve prosperity for all countries, in particular developing countries, will be crucial for any discussion on the future we want.

– Along the same lines, we also consider that poverty eradication, being an absolute priority for developing countries, as well as an overarching goal of the United Nations agenda as a whole, should figure prominently in any framework for our future discussions.

– In order to have a better understanding of the proposal, the Group would like to ask the co-facilitators to explain the rational and criteria behind the proposed structure of the text and to define the so-called “cross-cutting issues”, as well as the choices made to outline the clusters and the different elements contained therein. We would also like to discuss and clarify how the interconnections of elements within the clusters would be addressed. These clarifications will help in our negotiations regarding the overall structure of the text and the kind of document we would like to see as an outcome of this process.

In closing, the Group reiterates our commitment to engage in this intergovernmental process in a constructive manner, with the hope of having our interests as a Group better captured in the text.

We remain confident on your guidance, distinguished co-facilitators, to be able to arrive to a succesful conclusion of our work.

I thank you.