Mr. President,
We congratulate you and all the officers of the Committee on your election. We wish you every success in carrying out your responsibilities.
We welcome the presence of Ms. Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, and thank her for providing an update on the activities of the Department of Global Communications and on the implementation of the recommendations contained in Resolutions 79/93 A-B.
My delegation associates itself with the statements delivered by Iraq, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and Venezuela, on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations. We also support the statement delivered by Ecuador, on behalf of the Group of Friends of Spanish.
In reviewing the reports presented by the Secretary-General on the activities of the Department of Global Communications, we acknowledge the communications work carried out by the Organization during this period. We highlight the work done to ensure the integrity of information in a context where truthfulness and objectivity are increasingly needed.
We would also like to emphasize the impetus that the Department has given to multilingual strategic communication campaigns. In particular, we appreciate the inclusion of two sections dedicated to multilingualism in the reports on Campaign Services and Country Operations and News Services. We emphasize the promotion of these values as a reflection of the richness and cultural diversity of peoples and to encourage the wide dissemination of content accessible to diverse audiences.
As we approach 2030, we encourage the Global Communications Department to continue to strengthen its strategic communications activities on relevant issues, such as the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a matter of particular priority for developing countries.
We welcome efforts to digitize and preserve photographs and audiovisual archives. In this regard, we welcome the launch of a multimedia website by the Department of Global Communications in 2024, which will bring together material from the Audiovisual Library, Web TV, the Photo Service and United Nations Television. This is an important step towards preserving the historical memory of the Organization.
Mr. President,
The computerization of Cuban society continues to be a priority for our country. The ICT sector is one of the strategic objectives of our Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030, one of the specific objectives of which is to develop and maintain the telecommunications infrastructure in order to achieve universal access and productive use of ICTs.
Promoting the development of ICTs is a matter of national interest. We are counting on the will and talent of professionals in the sector to support and promote a path of development for Cuban society, despite the obstacles that make connectivity in the country more expensive and hinder access to advanced technologies. This interest also responds to our President's call to provide creative solutions, based on science, technology and innovation, to the problems facing the Cuban people.
In this regard, the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States government is the main obstacle to our development. Like other sectors of the Cuban economy, the telecommunications sector is not exempt from the effects of this policy of economic siege.
During the period from March 2024 to February 2025, the damage caused to the ICT sector as a result of the hostile policy of the United States towards our country is estimated at 78 million 64 thousand 5 dollars. In this phase, as in the previous ones, ETECSA continues to be the most affected company, representing approximately 94.3% of the total amount of such damages.
Cuban representatives face numerous difficulties in participating in virtual meetings and events convened by agencies of the United Nations system, due to the fact that Cuba has restricted access to several of the digital platforms used for these purposes, as is the case of Zoom. In this sense, we condemn the imposition of such restrictions that affect Cuba's participation in various spaces.
We denounce the existence of a design in the digital social platforms aimed at positioning the opinion matrix that the United States uses to manipulate the Cuban reality and try to justify its blockade policy against Cuba. It is a permanent operation of disinformation and discrediting, financed with federal funds from the US budget, part of which is publicly declared and amounts to tens of millions of dollars annually. In addition, there are covert funds that also support these platforms.
Likewise, there continues to be constant harassment of companies and suppliers that maintain commercial relations or express interest in doing business with Cuban entities, which has a negative impact on the computerization process of Cuban society.
Cuba has continued to work actively to develop telecommunications infrastructure and services in Cuba. This is evidenced by the results achieved in 2024.
Despite the many challenges, telephone density reached 79.6% in mobile telephone service and 15.8% in fixed telephone service, for a total of 87.93% telephone density; the number of mobile telephone service users increased by more than 340 thousand, for a total of eight million 7 thousand 556 mobile lines in service; out of these, those provided for Internet access increased by more than 649 thousand lines, to reach 6 million 808 thousand users, for a total of 78% mobile lines in service.
Mr. President,
We must reiterate before this Committee our total rejection and condemnation of the constant radio and television aggression against Cuba, as well as the improper use of cyberspace by the United States government against our country, for destabilizing purposes and political subversion, contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the International Telecommunication Union.
These radio and television broadcasts violate international law and the Cuban constitutional order. They promote programs that are detrimental to Cuban sovereignty, with respect to the national competence to regulate the flow of information and the use of the mass media. They also include programs specifically designed to promote political destabilization.
Aggressive radio broadcasts against our country continue in the medium and short wave bands. In March of this year alone, 12 stations broadcast against Cuba, using a total of 21 monthly frequencies (13 short wave and 8 medium wave).
The United States government continues to finance, with government funds, the subversive programs against Cuba of organizations that claim to be independent and for years have been profiting from and making a career out of anti-Cuban mercenarism.
Mr. President,
The world is experiencing a vertiginous advance in the development of Information and Communication Technologies. Let us use these innovative tools for human development, to stimulate knowledge, encourage production and improve the quality of life.
Let us advocate a use of technologies compatible with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, based on respect for sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, and peaceful coexistence.
I conclude by reaffirming Cuba's willingness to contribute to the efforts to establish a new world information and communications order that is fairer and more equitable, in which cooperation is privileged and not blockades; the respect for sovereign equality is privileged and not interference agendas. Let us defend a new world order in which technological and digital development is prioritized for the well-being of the peoples.
Thank you