'Change the rules of the game': G77+China summit seeks new global order

The G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 percent of the world's population, has kicked off a summit in Cuba with a call to "change the rules of the game" of the global order.

"After all this time that the North has organised the world according to its interests, it is now up to the South to change the rules of the game," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said at the opening of the summit on Friday.

Diaz-Canel said that developing countries were the main victims of a "multidimensional crisis" in the world today, from "abusive unequal trade" to global warming.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres is joining some 30 heads of state and government from Africa, Asia and Latin America at the two-day summit in Havana.

At the opening of the meeting he called for a world that was "more representative and responsive to the needs of developing economies", stressing that these countries were "trapped in a tangle of global crises."

The bloc was established by 77 countries of the global South in 1964 "to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity," according to the group's website.

Today it has 134 members, among which the website lists China although the Asian giant says it is not a full member.

Cuba took over the rotating presidency in January.

Latin American leaders such as Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, Colombia's Gustavo Petro, and Argentina's Alberto Fernandez were present at the summit, alongside Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Angola's Joao Lourenco and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will arrive on Friday night.

'Unjust' international order

China is represented by top Communist Party official Li Xi, who said his country "will always make South-South" cooperation a priority" in its dealings with the outside world.

The meeting should conclude Saturday with a statement underscoring "the right to development in an increasingly exclusive, unfair, unjust and plundering international order," the foreign minister of host Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez, told reporters on Wednesday.

A draft of the closing statement underlines the many obstacles facing developing nations, and includes "a call for the establishment of a new economic world order," he said.

Guterres has recently attended a rash of multilateral summits, including a gathering of the G20 club of major economies in India and the BRICS group that includes Russia.

Ahead of the Havana meeting, Guterres said "this multiplicity of summits reflects the growing multipolarity of our world."

And he warned that "multipolarity could be a factor for escalating geostrategic tensions, with tragic consequences."

The G77 meeting comes after key changes in global blocs.

The African Union has joined the G20 group of the world's most powerful economies, and the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - trade group for emerging economies has expanded to admit six new members.