New York, 9 October 2020.“In a pandemic, unequal, asymmetrically interconnected and interdependent world, multilateralism and the role of the United Nations in promoting development have never been so relevant”, stated today Juan Miguel González Peña, Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, in the debate of Item 21: “Globalization and interdependence” by the Second Committee.
The Cuban representative rejected the unilateral, protectionist and exclusionary actions of a few States, which defend strictly national interests and weaken and erode the existing multilateral framework and institutions, to the detriment of the necessarily global and collective solutions to the challenges facing humanity. He stressed that we need a transparent, open, non-discriminatory and inclusive multilateral system.
He pointed out that Cuba is working for its development under the unjust and criminal blockade of the United States, intensified by the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and the implementation of new measures this year, some of them in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. These sanctions against Cuba add up to a fierce campaign by the United States and its allies to discredit the Cuban medical brigades, whose work is internationally claimed and recognized, which not only harms Cuba, but also other peoples of the world in need of expressions of solidarity rather than selfishness and petty interests.
On behalf of Cuba, the diplomat at the international organization reiterated the need and validity of tenets for a New International Economic Order, based on equity, sovereign equality, common benefit and cooperation among all States, which corrects current inequalities and guarantees fair economic and social development for present and future generations.
He expressed that it is necessary that developing countries achieve technological sovereignty, greater access in terms of financing, investment, capacity building, infrastructure and technology transfer; while recalling that the development gap that separates the North from the South continues to widen, exacerbated by structural differences in several areas which prevent many countries from reaching higher levels of development.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations