G77+China

The Group of 77 (G77) was established on 15 June 1964 by the Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries issued at the conclusion of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD I) in Geneva. Though the founding membership numbered 77, the coalition has retained its original name for symbolic continuity while expanding to 134 member states by 2026. The "+China" formulation arose because the People's Republic of China, while not a formal member of the G77, coordinates and aligns its positions with the bloc and co-sponsors statements; the joint designation "G77 and China" became standard usage in UN documents from the late 1980s. The grouping institutionalised the developing world's demand for a restructured global economy, articulated most forcefully in the 1974 Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO), adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 3201 (S-VI), and the accompanying Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, Resolution 3281 (XXIX).

The coalition operates as a caucusing bloc rather than a formal organisation: it has no charter, permanent secretariat, or budget, and functions through chapters in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Rome, Vienna, Paris and Washington. Its annual chairmanship rotates among the three regional groups — Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Decisions are reached by consensus, and the bloc negotiates as a unit in the UN General Assembly's Second Committee (economic and financial), in UNCTAD, in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and in the World Trade Organization on development questions. Its core agenda spans development financing, technology transfer, debt relief, commodity prices, South-South cooperation and the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) enshrined in the 1992 Rio Declaration and the UNFCCC.

The bloc's influence has been pronounced in climate diplomacy: at the 2009 Copenhagen COP15 and the 2015 Paris Agreement negotiations, G77+China pressed for differentiated obligations, climate finance commitments (the contested USD 100 billion annual target), and a loss-and-damage mechanism — the latter producing a dedicated fund agreed at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh (2022) and operationalised at COP28 in Dubai (2023). The First and Second South Summits (Havana 2000, Doha 2005, and the Third South Summit at Kampala 2024) reaffirmed its priorities. As of 2026 the bloc remains the principal vehicle of "Global South" assertion at the UN, though internal divergence between large emerging economies and least-developed countries periodically strains consensus.

For exam purposes, the G77+China recurs in International Relations and Bangladesh-in-the-World papers and in the diplomacy and statecraft syllabus. Bangladesh, a vocal member representing least-developed-country interests, has championed the bloc's positions on climate finance and migration. Examiners typically test the 1964 founding date and UNCTAD origin, the distinction between the G77 and the Non-Aligned Movement (overlapping but distinct), the NIEO demands, and the bloc's role in CBDR and loss-and-damage diplomacy. A common analytical angle asks candidates to evaluate the coalition's coherence given the rise of China and India versus the vulnerabilities of small island and least-developed states.