KATHMANDU, March 22: Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has said that all forms of international cooperation should respect national ownership and leadership, and focus on the needs and priorities of the country.
Addressing the Second High-Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday, Minister Gyawali said that his statement is based on the experience of Nepal's own development process.
According to Minister Gyawali, the principle of 'leaving no one behind' should be placed at the core as some members of the global south are lagging far behind despite having similar ambitions for development.
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Minister Gyawali also said that cooperation among the states in the global south should have a clear focus on poverty eradication.
“SDG 1 is the biggest battle we have and perhaps the most cross-cutting, and therefore a sine qua non for making the world a better place to live,” he said.
Minister Gyawali also stressed on gender equality, inclusiveness, concrete steps to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and social justice, among others, as the guiding principles for development.
“Women and youths should be assured for better opportunities and more investment must be guaranteed in education and technological innovations,” he further said.
Stressing the need of global peace and stability as the prerequisite for development, Minister Gyawali said that South-South Cooperation is more relevant now than ever before given that the cost of conflicts mainly goes on the shoulder of the global south.
“This is the time to further diversify and strengthen our cooperation in scale, in scope, in quality and in its effectiveness,” he said.
Gyawali said that sharing of experiences and best practices between and among the countries of the south will go a long way.
“South-South Cooperation, as complementary to and not a substitute for the North-South Cooperation, plays an important role for the effective and timely implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other internationally agreed development outcomes such as IPOA [Instanbul Plan of Action] and VPOA [Vienna Plan of Action],” he added.
