Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus M.Ryzhenkov at the 10th Ministerial Meeting of the Like-Minded Group for Middle-Income Countries (25 September 2025, New[...]

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Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus M.Ryzhenkov at the 10th Ministerial Meeting of the Like-Minded Group for Middle-Income Countries (25 September 2025, New York)

Mr.Chairman, Madame Minister,
Excellences,
Dear Colleagues,

I would like to start by sincerely thanking our host, the Philippines, for organizing this event and, more generally, for effectively steering the Group's activities over the past year.

Our status as Middle-income countries testifies to the fact that we have achieved solid progress in our development.

But our success is rather relative insofar as much more still needs to be accomplished. It is not for nothing that experts often characterize the overall situation with MICs as a "middle-income trap".

Indeed, we are "trapped" in a sense that our economies need to find some new drivers for growth, innovation and development. If we fail to harness them, we may slide back to where many of us were in the past.

If, on the other hand, we succeed, we may reach a much higher level of development and become more significant donors for the UN development system thereby providing assistance of our own to least developed countries.

That is why the issue of MICs' success should be a matter of preoccupation for the entire UN system, not just for our Group.

And that is why it is important to hold at the General Assembly, on a frequent basis, High-level meetings on MICs.

In this context the topic of developing two documents for MICs - a Strategic plan of action and an Inter-agency system-wide response plan should be placed front and center at our efforts in the UN.

As far as the current session is concerned, let us work vigorously together to advance the above ideas in a biennial draft resolution on "Development cooperation with Middle-Income Countries". Belarus stands ready to do its part.

Our strong position is that only together will we be able to succeed. Only in this way will our voice be heard and taken into account. It implies that MICs' interests should be viewed through the lens of common interests. We should do our best to bring this point home to other states and groups of states.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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