Mr. President:
We endorse the statement delivered by the delegation of Azerbaijan on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
We congratulate Vietnam on the exercise of the presidency of the Security Council during the current month, and the five new non-permanent members of the Security Council for the 2020-2021period. We wish them success in this responsibility.
We recognize the work carried out by the delegations of Equatorial Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Kuwait, Peru and Poland, as non-permanent members of the Security Council for the 2018-2019 term.
Mr. President:
We welcome the holding of this ministerial-level open debate, which is both timely and necessary.
The United Nations and its Charter came into existence due to the pressing need to save the world from another world war and with the permanent objective of ensuring peace, security, dignity and development for all the peoples in the world. In the year of its 75th anniversary, we reiterate Cuba's unwavering commitment to upholding the purposes and principles of the Charter, which are the basis of multilateralism, one of the main sources of International Law and the guide for the conduct of States in their international relations.
However, the continued violations of the Charter and the breaches of International Law, including the use and threat of use of force against sovereign States, aggressions against the sovereignty of other nations and interference in the internal affairs of States, continue to be everyday occurrences.
We reject unconventional wars for the purposes of achieving hegemonic rule, the attempts to re-impose a unipolar order, the selective assassination of foreign leaders, the plundering and theft of natural resources, the imposition of unilateral coercive measures, extraterritoriality, unilateral sanctions, pressures of all kinds and all those aggressions aiming at undermining multilateralism, disrupting peace and stability and disrespecting the provisions laid down in the United Nations Charter.
Mr. President:
The Security Council must carry out its duties in accordance with the powers conferred upon it by the Charter itself to preserve international peace and security, but it must do so without double standards or discrimination, and always with strict adherence to justice and principles.
It is therefore the duty of all States to work to promote peaceful solutions and to demonstrate a firm, effective and resolute opposition to war. In particular, this principal body of the Organization must exhaust all available resources and possibilities to preserve peace and life, and prevent the promotion and implementation of the philosophy of dispossession, the agendas for regime change or attempts to violate the right of peoples to self-determination. It must promote a just, democratic and equitable international order, which meets the demands for peace, development and justice of the peoples throughout the world and contributes to the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It must defend multilateralism and reject any proposal that may constitute interference by the Council in the affairs assigned to other central organs of the Organization, especially the General Assembly.
A truly strong and participatory United Nations is necessary, with a transparent and duly democratized Security Council and a revitalized General Assembly, which will accompany States in the sovereign construction of the future that each nation will decide for itself without interference of any kind.
Mr. President:
In Cuba, we have fought for peace, we have cooperated with many other peoples in the search for a better life and we have defended our independence and sovereignty at all costs. We have never been intimidated or subdued, nor will we be subdued, by the illegal and criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade that for almost six decades the government of the United States has been imposed on our small island, tightened by a brutal economic war and the full implementation of the Helms Burton Act; disregarding the call of the international community, which has rejected that policy and demanded that it be ended, for 28 consecutive times, at the United Nations General Assembly.
As Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez would express, and I quote, "Cuba will take all necessary steps to curb the interventionist ambitions of the United States, to protect the tranquility and well-being of the population, to safeguard national unity and to defend, at whatever cost necessary, the sovereignty and independence of the country”.
Our country will continue to contribute, with its limited resources, with all its energy and with an unwavering will, to the well-being of other peoples, especially the most needy, by providing international cooperation for inclusive and sustainable development. Cuba will continue to be committed to upholding the UN Charter, in favor of international peace and security.
Thank you very much.