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The Director of Europe and Canada of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, HE Mrs. Iliana Núñez Mordoche, dialogued with the Deputy Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Unit of the Foreign Ministry Finland, HE Mr. Mikael Langstrom and with Ambassador of that country in Cuba, HE Mr. Ari Maki. During the meeting, both parts addressed issues of common interest to develop the bilateral agenda. Ambassador Maki presented this Tuesday his credentials in Havana to the First Vice President, Salvador Valdés Mesa, accompanied by the Deputy Director of Finlands MFA, HE Mr. Mikael Langstrom, and has had an intense agenda in Havana, which included other meetings with Cuban MFA authorities.

Nearly 600 parliamentarians from 73 countries across the globe have written a joint letter, coordinated and published by the Progressive International (PI), condemning Cuba’s designation by the United States as a “state-sponsor of terrorism” as “cynical, cruel, and a clear violation of international law”. In the letter, published today, Friday 20 September, the legislators call on their respective governments to “take immediate action to advocate for [the designation’s] removal.” The US state-sponsor of terrorism designation, removed in 2015 following a thorough evaluation by the Obama Administration, was reapplied to Cuba on the very last days of the Trump presidency in 2021. Countries on the US list face extreme sanctions which hinder access to medicines and foods. The three other countries with the designation by the US government are Syria, since 1979, Iran, since 1984 and North Korea, since 2017. President Joe Biden has not removed the designation, despite promising a return to the Obama-era policy.