New York, November 9, 2018. Preserving and promoting multilateralism, especially by strengthening the central role of the United Nations and fostering international cooperation, is essential to face global challenges and threats, said the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the world organization, Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo, in her statement at the Security Council open debate on the "Maintenance of international peace and security, focusing on strengthening multilateralism and the role of the United Nations."
She added that the search for negotiated solutions at the multilateral level - through collective agreements with the participation of all States under equal conditions- is the most effective way to maintain international peace and security.
The island, which has expressed in many scenarios its strong commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, is a firm defender of principles defined by international law and embodied in the UN Charter, such as sovereign equality among States; respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of States; non-intervention in internal affairs of the States; the non-use of threat or force and the peaceful settlement of disputes, said the Cuban representative.
Rodriguez Camejo also denounced how some States implement policies that undermine multilateralism and pose enormous challenges and threats to the United Nations. She made reference to nations that ignore commitments and international obligations previously acquired and of great importance to face global phenomena such as climate change; they implement unilateral sanctions, deploy trade wars; enact and apply extraterritorial laws and double standards; and impose domestic policies, pressures, take reprisals and arbitrary sanctions against third parties.
Specifically, she referred to the many occasions in which the United States has shown its irreverence to multilateralism: the application of extraterritorial laws, such as the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for more than 60 years against the International law, the Charter of the United Nations and 27 resolutions of the General Assembly; the withdrawal of the Paris Agreement on climate change; or the use of extrajudicial executions, kidnapping and torture, including in the prison at Guantánamo Naval Base that it illegally occupies from the island.
To conclude, the Cuban ambassador reiterated the unavoidable commitment of Cuba to continue working together with the United Nations and its member States, in favor of the establishment of a democratic and just international order that responds to the demand for peace, development and justice of peoples of the world and to ensure the maintenance and strengthening of multilateralism.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations