Press Release-G77 Chairmanship Transfer

G77 Chairmanship Transfer

The G77 Chairmanship handover ceremony held in New York

His Excellency Rafael Correa Delgado, President of the Republic of Ecuador assumed the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China (G77) for 2017, following the transfer of the gavel from His Excellency Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Chair of G77 for 2016, amidst a ceremony held at UN headquarters on 13 January 2017.

The outgoing chair of the Group opened the ceremonial meeting and handed over the chairmanship to the incoming chair, who then presided over the remainder of the meeting, during which UN Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres, and Ambassador Durga Prasad Bhattarai of Nepal (acting for the President of the General Assembly His Excellency Peter Thomson), were invited to speak. Nepal is a vice President of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

On the occasion, Permanent Representatives of Venezuela, Bangladesh and Bolivia also made statements as the Chairs of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Least Developed Countries and Land-locked Developing countries respectively, together with some other groups.

His Excellency Durga Prasad Bhattarai is concurrently accredited as Ambassador of Nepal to both Ecuador and Venezuela.