Remarks by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the open session titled “Reforms of Global Governance and the Multilateral System,” held as part of the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Your Excellence Dr. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India.
Excellencies, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, distinguished heads of delegation and delegates.
For the first time, the Government of the United States has publicly formalized, through a Department of State press release, an offer of humanitarian aid to Cuba valued at 100 million dollars. It has not established contact with Cuba. So far, it has not been clarified whether this will be aid in cash or in materials, nor whether it will be allocated to the most urgent needs of our people: fuel, food, and medicine. Even while recognizing the incongruity of this apparent generosity from one who subjects the Cuban people to collective punishment through economic warfare, the Cuban government does not make it a practice to reject foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine cooperation purposes.
The best aid that the United States Government could provide to the noble Cuban people, at this or any other time, would be to de-escalate the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade measures, which have been intensified like never before in recent months and severely affect all sectors of the Cuban economy and society. Keep in mind that the application of the blockade for just 5 days causes damages equivalent to 100 million dollars. A similar figure spent on fuel would only suffice for 15 days of electricity generation under reduced consumption.
In the opening session, I denounced the successive executive orders from the United States Government that reinforce the economic blockade and the threat of military aggression against Cuba to extreme levels. In addition to the energy siege imposed since the beginning of the year, there is now the application of so-called secondary sanctions of a marked extraterritorial nature against entities from third countries that operate or have operated with Cuba. With this criminal act, which violates international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the United States intends to impose upon the entire world the obligation to abide by the blockade against Cuba, regardless of the sovereignty of each government and the will of their peoples. Only a broad and resolute international coalition will allow us to successfully confront the global predation of the United States, which will be doomed to failure if we, as States, do not allow ourselves to be intimidated. In this context, the reform of global governance and the multilateral system is not a mere aspiration; it is an urgent and indispensable political necessity.
Cuba maintains that the strengthening of the United Nations must be oriented toward its true democratization and not toward the indiscriminate reduction of its resources. The largest contributors have an obligation to pay their assessments fully, on time, and without conditions. A comprehensive reform of the Security Council is equally urgent to grant it democracy, transparency, representativeness, and inclusiveness, rectifying the insufficient presence of developing countries.
Cuba values the role of BRICS as an alternative to the stagnant and unjust international economic order that is now agonizing under the imposition of peace through force. The mechanisms for the use of national currencies, the new development bank, and sovereign integration initiatives are concrete steps in the right direction. The group must contribute decisively to the reform of the international financial system and to the creation of a multilateral mechanism within the framework of the UN for the fair and transparent negotiation of the sovereign debt of developing countries.
Despite the blockade, sanctions, and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues to build its sovereign path toward socialist development and to contribute, within its modest possibilities, to the development of other peoples of the South. We will continue to raise our voice in every international forum to defend the reforms that the world needs. The global governance we aspire to build is based on the rejection of domination and hegemony, on unrestricted respect for international law, and on the conviction that cooperation, solidarity, and justice are the only way toward a truly multilateral, democratic, and inclusive order.
Thank you very much.
(Cubaminrex)