On Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil announced that representatives from 18 countries are participating in the 2nd meeting of the Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter taking place in Caracas.
RELATED:
"The meeting is an important step in the fight for international spaces that promote multilateralism and respect the mandate of the world's peoples in their quest for freedom, human rights, and sovereignty," he said.
"Today, when the world is threatened by fascism and wars, it is necessary for countries to be more united than ever," the Bolivarian diplomat stressed during the opening speech.
Participants hope that the meeting will strengthen international solidarity and cooperation for the sake of security and development. They also hope that it will provide concrete solutions to the current multidimensional crisis affecting the daily lives of people in the Global South.
The text reads, "Yvan Gil denounced that, in recent years, Venezuela has witnessed the systematic violation of the UN Charter principles and has been one of the main victims. Venezuela has been excluded from the international system and from many UN organizations controlled by the U.S. such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which apply unilateral coercive measures."
The Venezuelan minister highlighted that "unilateral coercive measures" are one of those critical issues that developing countries must address as they affect one-third of humanity.
On June 19, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on this issue, Gil said, emphasizing that the existence of unilateral coercitive measures can no longer be ignored and must be thoroughly addressed "if we are truly committed" to ensuring the well-being of present and future generations.
Participants in the Caracas meeting adopted a declaration expressing their concern about the growing use of unilateralism through arbitrary actions and approaches, which violate both the United Nations Charter and other norms of international law.
The Group of Friends is composed of Angola, Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Palestine, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Nicaragua, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Laos, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.