Today, the United Nations is the venue for the Regional Interactive Dialogue of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on the priorities of the region with a view to holding the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, to be presided over by Cuba. At the same time, Cuba is the President Pro Tempore of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for the biennium 2018-2020.
As a demonstration of the importance and priority that Cuba attaches to South-South Cooperation and ECLAC, the island´s government decided to designate the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment of the Republic of Cuba, Mrs. Ileana Núñez Mordoche, to preside over this dialogue in her capacity as Chair of the ECLAC Committee on South-South Cooperation.
Unfortunately, the disrespectful and mishandling by the United States Government of its obligations as a host country has prevented the presence of Deputy Minister Núñez Mordoche in the program, by unreasonably delaying the granting of her entry visa to the United States, which had been duly processed. For this purpose, they used unacceptable conditions and pretexts, totally unrelated to this event.
Moreover, this type of acting violates the obligations of the United States under the United Nations Headquarters Agreement and is yet another example of the disrespect shown by that Government to multilateral organizations and their member States.
It is unacceptable that the United States subordinates visas for multilateral events to bilateral issues and differences with Cuba, especially when this is intended to generate a new pretext for affecting diplomatic relations between the two nations. Such conditions and disrespectful actions also aim to jeopardize the fulfillment of Cuba´s multilateral commitments, which have been earned through its full respect for the Charter of the United Nations and its commitment to multilateralism.
New York, 29 November 2018.