Copenhagen, November 20, 2023. Former Danish Foreign Minister Moghen Lykketoft delivered a clear message against the US blockade in sessions held at the International Court in Brussels.
Message:
My name is Mogens Lykketoft, and I have been in Danish politics for many years, and I was in 2015-2016 the president of the UN General Assembly.
I experienced during that time the very strong resistance from all the world against the American blockade of the Cuban economy with its extraterritorial consequences; ships going to Cuba and not being able to land in America and so on.
And all this has over the years of course damaged the Cuban economic development. But it is also condemned as a very heavy breach of any kind of international norms.
We expected that this blockade – going on for decades – would finally end, when President Obama in his last years as president, opened up towards Cuba and actually visited the country in the spring of 2016.
Cuba at that time was also recognized as a very important player in peacekeeping in Latin America. Cuba – together with Norway – were the two countries facilitating negotiations between the government of Colombia and the FARC-resistance movement to make peace.
And I was personally in Havanna, Cuba in June 2016 to meet with those who were negotiating the peace – including nearly all the presidents of Latin America and the Secretary General of the UN as well.
And there was this recognition, that Cuba was not – as the Americans often say – a terrorist state, but a state trying to facilitate peace in the region.
I also had meetings with the Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, when I visited Havanna. It was a very good discussion and both of us were expecting that finally this mad blockade policy would end.
We all know it didn’t happen.
I think most people also - following the development - recognize, that it didn’t happen because President Trump was elected and turned around the American policy.
But also, that Cuban exile voters, particularly in the state of Florida, became so important in the very delicate play about the American presidency.
Even the present president has not done anything to remove the unacceptable blockade of Cuba in spite of the opinion of whole global society.
SW/ den 3. november 2023
The international court that analyzed the US blockade against Cuba for two days ruled, last Friday, that this policy violates International Law and universal norms for peaceful coexistence.
He also stressed that the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington violates the UN Charter, which enshrines the sovereignty of the countries, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and agreements of the World Trade Organization, among other norms.
Mogens Lykketoft was leader of the PSD. Minister of Finance, in two periods (1981-82), and (1993-2000). Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2000 to November 2001. President of the Danish Parliament from 2011-15. He was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly on June 15, 2015. He presided over the 70th session of the General Assembly from September 14, 2015 to September 13, 2016.
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