MINISTERIAL DECLARATION The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the Group of 77 and China met at

The Ministers noted with deep concern that the lack of effective implementation of the internationally agreed development goals including the MDGs remains the Achilles Heel of the UN development agenda and stressed that securing the effective and full implementation of the agreed goals and commitments must be of the highest priority. [...] In this context, the Ministers look forward to the positive outcomes of the Fifteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change and the Fifth Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 7 to 18 December 2009. [...] The Ministers further reaffirmed the principle of "capacity to pay" as the fundamental criterion in the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations and rejected any change to the elements of the current methodology for the preparation of the scale of assessments aimed at increasing the contributions of developing countries. [...] The Ministers took note of the efforts by TWAS towards the operationalization of the Consortium on Science, Technology and Innovation for the South (COSTIS), in accordance with the mandate of the Second South Summit held in Doha, Qatar from 12 to 16 June 2005 and the decision by the Meeting of the Ministers of Science and Technology of the Member States of the Group of 77 held in Angra dos Reis, R. [...] The Ministers also commended the efficient work and continued valuable support provided by the secretariat of the Group of 77 in New York to the Chair country and to the Member States and congratulated the Executive Secretary of the Group of 77 for the achievement award presented to him during the opening ceremony of the Ministerial Meeting in recognition of his outstanding performance, his contin.