Thank you, Chair, for giving us the opportunity to comment on the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and its link to the World Summit on the Information Society.
Cuba shares the United Nations Secretary-General's call to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation as a solution to the global challenges of the present and the future.
This endeavor, which includes as an essential component the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, given its programmatic nature, its impact on the United Nations System, the broad scope of the proposals for the short, medium and long term, as well as the inclusion of several concepts and terms, requires a broad analysis by the Member States.
Its proposals should be inclusive, intergovernmental and led by the Member States. Intergovernmental discussions are needed to explore these ideas in greater depth and to generate the necessary consensus with a view to determining the feasibility of moving forward with each of these proposals.
The starting point of the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation should be the agreements contained in the outcome documents adopted by Heads of State and Government in the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
There is a need to increase coordination and coherence between the different processes taking place in the United Nations system related to information society issues, including cybersecurity, cybercrime and internet governance, among others.
If digital cooperation is to be desired, the imposition of unilateral measure not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impedes the full achievement of economic and social development by the population of the affected countries and that hinders their well-being should be avoided, as expressed in the WSIS outcome documents. It is also necessary to immediately eliminate the application of such measures that are in force.
In the particular case of Cuba, the country has had to face the pandemic in the midst of the global crisis and under an intensified economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba that has been in force for more than 60 years, which is the main impediment to a better flow of information and greater access to the Internet, and to ICTs in general, by the people of Cuba.
In order to advance digital cooperation, we must work for a new world order of equity and social justice to replace the existing unjust international economic order.
Cuba reiterates its commitment to continue working with the Member States and the United Nations in defense of a more just and democratic international order, which responds to the demands for peace, development and justice of all the peoples of the world, and that guarantees the preservation and strengthening of multilateralism and international law.