Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The impact of COVID19 can already be measured and will be assessed in the future by the striking numbers of people infected, the unacceptable numbers of deaths, the unquestionable damages to the world economy, production, trade, employment and personal income of millions of people. It is a crisis that goes well beyond the scope of health.
Speech delivered by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the First Extraordinary Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Health of the Association of Caribbean States on Covid-19 held by Video Conference.
Excellencies:
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba.
Last March 13, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland requested from the Cuban authorities that MS Braemar, a member of the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, be authorized to dock in a Cuban port and that its passengers, a small number of which have been affected by the novel coronavirus (SARS CoV 2/Covid-19), be cleared for repatriation by air.
Cuba is recognized worldwide as a safe tourist destination, with outstanding hospitality, evidenced by the Excellence Award as the safest country for tourism, awarded at the 38th International Tourism Fair, in Madrid, Spain, in 2018.
Government leaders of Caribbean Community (Caricom) member countries concluded the 31st Inter-session meeting yesterday, and reiterated their concern given the U.S. government’s intensification of sanctions and activation of the Helms-Burton Act’s Title III, to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, and denounced as “unjustifiable the application of laws and measures of an extraterritorial nature contrary to international law".