Pretoria, June 14, 2022.- Cuba and Lesotho today celebrate the 43rd anniversary of their bilateral diplomatic relations, established on June 14, 1979. Throughout these 43 years, the two nations have paved productive relations, based on friendship, cooperation and solidarity.
The permanent exchange of first-level visits and the important cooperation agreements in force are expression of the good state of these relations.
A vivid example was the productive official visit made by the King of Lesotho, His Majesty Letsie III to Cuba in 2020, which allowed the existing cooperation links to be deepened.
In this last year, despite the movement limitations imposed by the COVID19 emergency, the systematic political exchanges aimed at monitoring, expanding and strengthening bilateral ties was maintained, by means of the virtual way for example.
So far, the main areas of collaboration are framed in the sectors of human resource training, health and physical education, which have been implemented satisfactorily and has been recognized by the country's authorities.
Thanks to the free annual scholarships granted by Cuba, dozens of Basotho professionals have been able to graduate from university studies, mainly as doctors, which has a great social impact in the country.
14 health professionals make up the Cuban Medical Brigade that offers health services to the population of the country in various specialties such as Internal Medicine, Gynecology, Pediatrics, Surgery, Emergency and as General Practitioners.
Likewise, Cuban specialists provide assistance at the National University of Lesotho in the design of a program for the beginning in Lesotho of the Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education and Sports and the creation of a Faculty of Sports Sciences.
We highlight the support of Lesotho in the battle for the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States government against Cuba. In the 76th session of the UNGA, Lesotho voted in favor of the draft resolution presented by Cuba and the first Minister, Honorable Moeketsi Majoro reiterated during the general debate of the Assembly the "call to lift the unilateral economic blockade against the people of Cuba" and indicated that "these issues must be addressed and resolved urgently, comprehensively and honestly, without fear or favoritism, and without malice”,
We reiterate that the Cuban people and government are grateful for the substantive support of Lesotho in rejection of the criminal and illegal blockade policy, while maintaining the will to continue strengthening the historic ties of friendship between both nations.