On January 15, 2019, Palestine took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 from Arab Republic of Egypt. Prior to this, Egypt was the previous Chair of the bloc which is a coalition of 134 developing countries, along with China. The decision to elect Palestine as 2019 Chair of the G77 was taken in September 2018 by the foreign ministers of the Groups’ member States. In October 2018, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution enabling Palestine, a non-member Observer State at the world body, to have additional privileges and rights, such as participating in international conferences held under its auspices, for the duration of its role as G77 Chair.