Background: the Group of 77 and China summit that Cuba hosted in its capital

Background

When Cuba told the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly that the global order works against poorer countries, it was returning to an argument it had already staged at home. Havana hosted a summit of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, where the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the gathering. He told the delegates that global systems and frameworks had let developing countries down and that the world was failing them. His point was that bodies such as the Security Council, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were designed at a time when most developing countries had little voice in global affairs. He argued for institutions that match a multipolar world rather than the arrangement left over from the Second World War. The G77 is the main negotiating bloc of developing countries inside the United Nations system. Hosting its summit put Cuba at the centre of that bloc's reform agenda.