Namibia, May 15th, 2020- The Cuban ambassador to Namibia, Sidenio Acosta, participated in a television and radio panel on International Solidarity to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was broadcasted live on the national television and radio station Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
Mr. Zhang Yiming and Mr. William M. P. Whitehead, ambassadors of China and South Africa to Namibia respectively, also participated with the Cuban representative.
The Caribbean diplomat updated the audience on the response of the authorities and the organized actions of the Cuban people to face the COVID-19. He provided the data on infections, recovered patients, number of tests carried out and deaths in Cuba. He also highlighted the strategies applied, which have allowed a decrease in the number of new infections.
Ambassador Acosta also referred to the aid provided by Cuba to several countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa to face the pandemic. In this regard, he standed out the presence of more than two thousand Cuban health professionals, members of 24 contingents of the Henry Reeve Brigade, who provide services in 25 nations of the world. The Ambassador also added that they join to the nearly 30,000 Cuban health professionals who were already working in 59 countries before the pandemic. Likewise, he stressed that this is the continuity of the solidarity policy practiced since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
On the other hand, the maximum representative of Cuba in Namibia condemned the intensification of the United States blockade against the Island during the Trump Administration and the negative effects of that policy on the Cuban response to the pandemic. In connection with this, he denounced Cuba's difficulties in purchasing medicines and equipment that are extremely necessary for the treatment and control of the disease. He also pointed out obstacles to the arrival of shipments of humanitarian material to Cuba, as a result of the US genocidal policy. Similarly, he thanked the support of the international community to Cuba in its demand for the unconditional lifting of the US Blockade.
Ambassador Sidenio Acosta highlighted the importance of multilateralism, solidarity and international cooperation to face the pandemic. He criticized ultra-nationalist strategies and unilateral sanctions, as well as pondering the need to join international efforts to confront the virus and its consequences.
For their part, the representatives of China and South Africa also updated viewers and listeners of the situation in their respective countries. Both ambassadors agreed on the need to promote international solidarity, multilateralism, and global responses to the pandemic. They also highlighted the aid provided by Cuba for nearly 60 years and its prominent role in the fight against COVID-19.
Ambassador Whitehead appreciated sending a contingent from the Henry Reeve Brigade to South Africa to support his government in treating and controlling Covid-19. Ambassador Zhang Yiming condemned the difficulties imposed by the Blockade for the arrival of the donation made by his compatriot Jack Ma to Cuba.
Both criticized the application of unilateral coercive measures against several countries and specifically against Cuba. Both diplomats called for the lifting of the Blockade and the need to end violations of the spirit and letter of the Charter of the United Nations.
