NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia joined the list of the world’s 20 largest donor of development aid and ranked sixth overall last year, according to UN statistics.

In a speech at the United Nation’s Millennium World Summit on Sustainable Development, Al-Jubeir stressed on Saudi Arabia’s keenness to see the successful implementation of the sustainable development goals and their adoption across the region, pointing out the importance to also focus on achieving them for those in countries suffering from occupation.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia stressed that the “Kingdom retains full sovereign rights to oppose any implementations and recommendations that contradict the principles of Islam and its legislation.”

Al-Jubeir told world leaders that “mentioning sex in the text, to us, means exactly male and female. Mentioning family means consisting of a married man and woman.”

He asserted his country's right to not follow any rules that relate to any “deviations” from that belief as the world moves forward on the new development agenda.

The Vatican is also concerned that references to “sexual rights” include rights for gay people.

The minister also spoke of the Kingdom’s strong part in helping the global vision behind the Millennium Development Goals, ever since its inception 15 years ago.

“It is clear from the follow-up to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals that the Kingdom has exceeded the authorized limits for its completion of the goals and before the proposed deadlines,” Al-Jubeir said. “It is because of this that Saudi Arabia was able to join the list of high development index countries,” he added.