REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia supports Palestine's chairmanship of the Group of 77 (G77) and China for 2019, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stated. The minister expressed support during a meeting with Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Riyad Mansour in New York on Monday.

"On Jan 15, Palestine was elected G77 chairman. That is why I expressed Indonesia's support for Palestine's chairmanship of G77," she noted in a video received here on Tuesday night.

Palestine's election as chairman of the G77, a coalition of 134 developing nations, at the 73rd UN General Assembly, held in mid-September of 2018, is the first of its kind in history.

"Being a G77 chairman, the rank of (the Palestinian ambassador to the UN) has been promoted to the level of cabinet minister. This is something new," she noted.

Palestine, an observer state of the UN, will take over the G77 chairmanship from Egypt, which represents the interests of African countries. Founded in June 1964, G77 is a coalition of one-third of the UN member states.

The institution has a mission to deliver the voices of its members before 193 members of the UN General Assembly that issues the supreme decision at the UN. Although Palestine is not a full UN member, 136 UN member states have recognized it, and since 2012, it has enjoyed a non-member observer status.

As chairman of the group, Palestine will be able to act as a member state and use its rights to reply as a bloc member. As a non-member observer state, Palestine can cast vote in the General Assembly and join several international bodies.

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