Cuba's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gerardo Peñalver Portal, advocated here today for a new multilateral world order where solidarity, cooperation and integration among nations prevail.
Speaking at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Friends of the Brics countries, the diplomat stressed that this has been a historic demand that unites the G77 and the Brics Group.
The current order, the heir of colonialism, he reasoned, is based on rules, institutions, and commercial and financial systems that tend to perpetuate the benefits for the former colonial powers and restrict opportunities for the rest of the nations.
This tends to lead to the current conditions of economic crisis, with its greatest impact on developing countries, whose possibilities of recovery and progress are increasingly unattainable, he added.
The countries of the Brics Group, the diplomat continued, can and should contribute significantly to the necessary reform of the current international financial system, which is profoundly unjust, anti-democratic, speculative and exclusive.
In the 21st century, Peñalver recalled, obsolete institutions inherited from the Cold War and Bretton Woods continue to be imposed on us, far removed from the current international configuration, and conceived to profit from the reserves of the South, perpetuate underdevelopment and imbalance and reproduce their scheme of modern colonialism.
In this sense, he added, the implementation of the New Brics Development Bank could constitute an important alternative for the South.
Likewise, the expansion of the Bank's membership would increase its international influence, while its institutional development would contribute to mobilize financing and help the countries of the South to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
In his speech, Peñalver highlighted the initiative of the Brics countries to set up a broad-based foreign currency reserve mechanism to guarantee certainty and stability for the South, as well as the establishment of mutual lines of credit in local currencies.
If this mechanism is extended to other countries, this process would contribute to alleviate the serious imbalances of the current monetary system, which maintains the dollar as an instrument of pressure and as a weapon to impose unilateral coercive measures, the Cuban diplomat emphasized.
The G77 and the Brics advocate the use of science, technology and innovation as engines of sustainable development, he continued.
In that spirit, he said, Cuba has convened for this year a Summit of heads of state and government of the G77 and China on the current challenges of development and the role of science, technology and innovation in that context, to be held in Havana on September 15 and 16.
In his speech, Peñalver said that Cuba welcomes an eventual expansion of Brics membership. This would contribute, he said, to strengthening multilateralism, institutionality and the relevance of this mechanism within the global governance scheme.
In partnership, the G77 and the Brics should continue their efforts to ensure greater representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in the international system, he stressed.
Only through concerted action, he said, will we be able to move forward on the road to development for the benefit of our peoples.
Cuba is attending the Friends of the Brics meeting in its capacity as chair of the Group of 77 plus China, in the words of the Cuban First Deputy Minister: "the broadest and most diverse grouping of developing nations, in times of monumental challenges for our countries".