His Royal Highness, Prince of Wales,
The Right Honorable Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and First Secretary of State of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
His Excellency Dr. Claude Joseph, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Haiti and president of COFCOR,
His Excellency Irwin LaRocque, Secretary General of CARICOM,
Your Excellencies, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Caribbean:
I wish to express Cuba’s gratitude to the authorities of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the invitation to this 10th edition of the Forum, as an observer country.
I must denounce that I am intervening in this meeting through a VPN connection, because the US blockade against Cuba has prevented me from accessing the WEBEX platform.
More than a year after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, it continues to be a global challenge that has generated a systemic crisis with multiple and devastating impacts on our societies, which threatens progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In the case of Cuba, there is also the unprecedented tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States government, which significantly limits the effective response to the pandemic. However, today we have five vaccine candidates in different phases of clinical trials and this year we will immunize the entire Cuban population.
Cuba will continue to actively contribute to the success of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), and in that sense it expresses its willingness to work constructively with everyone for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
We reiterate the importance we attach to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and to the moral obligation to carry out financial transfers and appropriate technologies to developing countries.
There is an ecological debt of the industrialized countries, which makes the claim that the exercise of the right to development will require a rational level of carbon emissions is totally fair. Faced with the growing and multiple global challenges, we support the right of the Caribbean countries to receive fair and differential treatment.
We are deeply proud, and I am very grateful for His Royal Highness Prince of Wales mentioning the modest assistance that Cuba was able to give to the passengers and crew of the British Cruise Ship “MS Braemar”, precisely on a day like today, exactly one year ago.
We have modestly shared our experience in fighting the pandemic and sent 56 medical brigades from the International Contingent “Henry Reeve” to 40 countries and territories, including 11 Africans, 3 Europeans and 23 from Latin America and the Caribbean, including 12 nations. Caribbean and 5 overseas territories, 4 British and one French.
We reiterate our full disposition to continue making our contribution in terms of disaster risk reduction; to continue our collaboration in health, including epidemiological and scientific advice and the exchange of experiences acquired in the treatment of COVID-19; as well as in the training of human resources.
It is urgent to reaffirm the collective commitment of all nations to the strengthening of multilateralism. Let’s seek joint responses; let’s globalize cooperation; let’s move towards the sustainable development that our peoples deserve.
Thanks a lot.
(CubaMinrex)
