Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 16 October (BelTA) – The Belarusian delegation attended the debates on cooperation with middle-income countries, a category that includes Belarus, held as part of the 70^th session of the UN General Assembly, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Andrei Dapkiunas noted in his speech that currently there is a growing interest in the problems of this group of countries. Within the last two years Belarus has hosted two international events on the topic, including a joint conference with UNIDO in April on innovative industrial development in middle-income countries. The challenges of these countries were reflected in the outcome document of the UN summit last September. Success of the Sustainable Development Agenda approved at the summit will largely depend on the progress in middle-income countries that constitute the majority of the states on the planet.

The Belarusian representative expressed regret on the fact that middle-income countries are the only significant category of UN member states that are not covered by the systemic activities within the Organization and do not have a coordination assistance mechanism. Belarus considers it necessary to rectify this situation by developing a comprehensive United Nations action plan on cooperation with this group of countries.

Detailed planning and coordinated assistance on the part of the United Nations system will contribute to sustainable development of these countries and ultimately to the implementation of the 2030 United Nations Agenda.

Belarus is an active participant of considering UN issues related to middle-income countries and will continue to uphold collective interests of this category of states, the press service stressed.