7.1 The need for G-77 and China

The South consists of three and a half billion people living in about 140 countries in thousands of communities with diverging religions, languages, customs and resources. However, it also exists as a loosely united body that is defined by its geographical location, its shared structural and political characteristics, its use of soft currency and its common historical experiences. "They share a fundamental trait; they exist on the periphery of the developed countries of the North. Most of their people are poor; their economies are mostly weak and defenceless; they are generally powerless in the world arena" (South Centre 1993: 3).

While the birth of the G-77 in 1964 principally aimed at developing a strategy of coalitional bargaining to restructure the international economic system in favour of the South, the G-77 has been used as a negotiating framework also for environmental and other issues. In the 1970s and 1980s, the G-77 had difficulty in articulating its position. With the end of the Reagan era, the Cold War and the economic decline in many developing countries, the developing countries once again tried to enhance their bargaining power with the preparations for the Earth Summit and were able to redefine a position. Since then the group has grown exponentially and they have been influencing the various committees of the UN. In 2000, the very first global G-77 summit was held. In the mean while, at the ninth meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Julius Nyerere proposed a smaller group of countries to develop the policies for the South‹the G-15. This group consists of Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela, Yugoslavia (Federal Rep.) and Zimbabwe. This group also tried to involve two non-NAM members‹Brazil and Mexico.