On the Participation of Mr. Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, in the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to follow up efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals

25 September 2013

25-09-2013

On September 25, 2013, during the first day of his visit to New York Mr. Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, attended the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to follow up efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Approved by world leaders in 2000, eight large-scale goals embodied the first in the world's history global programme for development and improvement of living standards of the population of the planet. All countries of the world and international development organizations pledged that by the year 2015 they would eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote equality between men and women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and promote global partnership for development.

Owing to consistent national efforts Belarus has fulfilled ahead of the schedule the goals of combatting extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing maternal and child mortality, promoting gender equality. An indicator of overall national success in recent years is the fact that Belarus belongs to the group of countries with high human development level, ahead of all CIS member states.

Along with UN Secretary-General, President of the European Commission, Presidents of Bolivia and Rwanda, Prime Ministers of Japan, Norway and Fiji, State Secretary of the United States, Foreign Minister of China, President of the World Bank, head of the delegation of Belarus addressed the high-level meeting on behalf of the Presidency of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In his statement the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus noted that economic cooperation is a priority for the countries of the CIS. Shared competitive advantages of the Commonwealth countries in sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, mining and processing of natural resources allowed the CIS states in general to overcome successfully the consequences of the world financial and economic crisis.

Belarusian representative encouraged the participants of the meeting to think already at this point about shaping the new and bold UN global development agenda for the post-2015 period. Noting that the key milestone on this road will be the UN summit in 2015, Mr. Makei called for preparation of serious and realistic sustainable development commitments to be adopted at the summit.