Armenia forced to focus its limited resources on servicing its  national debt rather than investing in humanitarian needs - Vahagn  Khachaturyan 

ArmInfo.Within the framework of his official visit to the Kingdom of Spain, President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan delivered a speech in the UN International Conference on Financing for Development.

At the outset, I would like to express my gratitude to the Government  of Spain for hosting this important international event and for its  generous hospitality.

In these turbulent times, when the world is grappling with  unprecedented challenges, it is more than ever necessary to joint our  efforts and demonstrate solidarity and strong political will to  implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

10 years ago, building on the commitments achieved in Monterrey and  Doha, we adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, an ambitious and  overarching document, shaping a set of guidelines and concrete tools  to reform the global financing system with the aim of leaving no one  behind. However, despite significant achievements, we still face more  questions than answers.

Global challenges that have emerged in recent years, such as the  COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing impact of climate change, rising  geopolitical tensions, growing number of conflicts, have revealed  serious gaps in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, requiring immediate  actions to further advance the reform of the international financial  architecture and adapt it to new realities. The decline in official  development assistance has had devastating consequences for  developing countries, threatening to reverse their hard-won progress.

The worrying trends in the global development agenda have a  particularly severe impact on countries in special situations: least  developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island  developing states, whose systemic vulnerabilities hinder the efforts  to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

The situation is also difficult for the middle-income countries,  often finding themselves in the middle- income trap, due to the  shortcomings of the current international financial system.

Take my country as an example. Armenia is classified as an  upper-middle income country. At the same time, Armenia is a  landlocked developing country, facing multidimensional challenges,  such as the influx of 115,000 refugees forcibly displaced from  Nagorno-Karabakh, making up 4 percent of the country's total  population, the reoccurring disasters caused by climate change,  difficulties with access to global markets and value chains. However,  Armenia is forced to focus its limited resources on servicing its  national debt exceeding $13 billion, rather than investing in  humanitarian, climate mitigation and sustainable development needs.

In this context, we believe that targeted and action-oriented steps  are essential to overcome current inequalities and systematic gaps in  the international financial architecture. Armenia strongly advocates  the introduction of complementary criteria beyond GDP, reducing  dependence on earmarked financing and strengthening the capacities of  the United Nations Development System for a timely and efficient  response to the needs of countries and people in vulnerable  situations.

Support from international community to strengthen democratic  institutions, promote good governance, ensure transparency and uphold  the rule of law is important to bring countries in special situations  and middle-income countries back on track towards sustainable  development. It is crucial to ensure equal and fair access to new  technologies, close the digital divide and mobilize the necessary  resources to address climate change, biodiversity loss and  desertification. As the host of the 17th Conference of the Parties to  the Convention on Biodiversity next year, Armenia is ready to work  closely with all partners to fill the gaps in biodiversity financing.

Armenia welcomes the consensus over the Outcome document, which  signals the readiness of all parties to work together to turn the  promises and commitments into real actions to bring transformative  changes on the ground.

We hope that the Compromiso de Sevilla, with its forward-looking  commitments, will provide new impetus to the efforts of international  community to reform the international financial architecture, enhance  its resilience and effectiveness and make financial resources more  accessible and affordable for the most vulnerable.

I wish the participants fruitful and result-oriented deliberations.