The so-called Sustainable Development Goals include a target to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights by 2030. Greece's prime minister has declared that the world can't talk about global development without addressing debt restructuring. Commenting on a newly adopted program for combating global poverty, Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's commitment to supporting the global agenda "despite the challenging economic environment." The foreign minister said Russia was a global leader in the cumulative reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is equating advances in women's rights to development in all sectors of society and is urging all nations to translate lip service into action in granting women full rights. Declaring that "women's rights are also human rights," she cited the fates of women exposed to violence in Syria, Iraq and other crisis regions. [...] she called for more concrete action to reach the goals of full elimination of inequality between the sexes, saying "Signals are good, actions are better." The Belarus president is warning of another world war "if we make one more step toward global conflict," and the ally of Russia made a not-so-veiled attack on Western efforts to address the conflict in Syria. China's President Xi Jinping has announced a $10 million donation to the U.N. agency promoting women's rights to implement the 1995 blueprint adopted by world leaders to achieve gender equality — which remains a new U.N. goal for 2030. Xi, who is co-chairing a meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the U.N. women's conference in Beijing that adopted the blueprint, also announced that in the next five years China will help developing countries establish 100 "health projects" for women and children.
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