Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus A. Dapkiunas participates in the UN discussion on middle-income countries
31.01.2018During the visit to the United Nations Headquarters, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Dapkiunas participated in the roundtable “The Way Forward of the United Nations Development System on Middle-Income Countries”.
The event was convened by Belarus together with Costa Rica on behalf of the Like-Minded Group of Countries Supporters of Middle-Income Countries (MICs) in the run-up to a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on MICs. Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, Liu Zhenmin, UN Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Cihan Sultanoğlu, Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator, Director of Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, František Ružička, Chef de Cabinet to the President of the UN General Assembly attended and participated in the roundtable.
In his statement, A. Dapkiunas presented a vision of Belarus regarding a high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on MICs, as well as the place and the role of these countries in global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. The Belarusian diplomat made a number of observations and proposals regarding the engagement of the UN development system in cooperation with this category of states, including the possibility of elaborating a UN strategy for MICs.
Background Information: In accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 72/230 “Development cooperation with middle-income countries”, and by an initiative of Belarus, the UN General Assembly decided to convene the high-level meeting of the General Assembly at the beginning of its seventy-third session, and no later than December 2018, to discuss the gaps and challenges of middle-income countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
