Your Excellency General Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda;
Dear ministers and heads of delegations;
Dear delegates and invited guests:
We thank the Republic of Uganda for its warm welcome. We recognize its commendable work at the helm of the Non-Aligned Movement, under the active leadership of President Yoweri Museveni.
It is always inspiring to come back to Africa, that has contributed so much to the emergence of the Cuban culture and nation.
Seventy years after the approval of the Bandung principles, the permanent search for peace, inextricably linked to development and social justice, must be today, more than ever, the essential purpose of the Non-Aligned.
We have witnessed Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, taking to alarming levels the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the collective punishment and the apartheid. The death toll has reached 65 000 Palestinians, including more than 20 000 children.
The colonizing practices of the Occupying Power in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have had the consent and impunity that the United States Government ensures by means of abusing the veto at the Security Council, furthermore, the US military and financial aid make them also a perpetrator of that crime.
We recognize the efforts of those Non-Aligned members and other international players who engaged in good faith in the process leading to the adoption of the Sharm el-Sheikh deal, in Egypt, with the hopes of ending more than two years of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. We reiterate that an agreement will only be sustainable, viable and lasting as long as it leads to an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as it capital, ensuring the right of return of the refugees.
However, recent statements by the United States government on the scope of the commitment taken on by that country in this process, without including a clear statement on the recognition of the Palestinian State, is more than enough reason to take a cautious stance regarding the durability and effectiveness of the deal reached.
It is imperative to promote concrete actions beyond the calls for the reconstruction of Gaza. All our efforts must be directed at the independence of the State of Palestine, and the end of the Israeli Zionist occupation, including its practice of genocide, extermination and ethnic cleansing.
In the face of the paralysis of the Security Council, the General Assembly must decide now, with determination, the accession of the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations.
Also urgent is the solidarity of the Movement with the Middle-East nations under Israeli attacks such as Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Qatar. The complicity of the United States has ensured a full impunity for those crimes.
Mr. President:
The attacks by the US government to the UN are growing, as well as its despise to multilateral agreements, including those that they are a Party to, indispensable to solve pressing current issues like climate change, nuclear arsenals or the arms race, that are jeopardizing life in the planet. They arrogantly justify the exacerbation of selfishness, individualism and hate speech.
The implementation of unilateral coercive measures increases, and so does the hostile rhetoric and the threat of aggression against our countries for the sake of destabilization and domination.
Plain excuses are used to threaten regional peace and security, like the current extraordinarily dangerous military buildup by the United States in the Caribbean Sea, disguised as operations against drug trafficking, in flagrant violation of the International Law.
Before the threat of military aggression, Cuba reiterates it unwavering and total support to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Military People’s Union led by the legitimate president Nicolas Maduros Moros, and calls upon the international community to mobilize in order to prevent an attack against Venezuela and preserve the Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.
The Non-Aligned Movement, the main forum for political coordination of the countries of the South, must face these grave challenges firmly.
Let us multiply our voice against colonialism, neocolonialism, interference and interventionisms.
We are active promoters of solidarity and friendly and cooperation relations among countries.
Excellencies:
On behalf of my country, I wish to thank NAM’s solid support against the economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States, and Cuba’s arbitrary inclusion in the fraudulent unilateral list of countries allegedly sponsors of terrorism.
In recent years, the blockade against Cuba has been tightened in the extreme and is causing humanitarian and economic damage that our people are facing with incalculable stoicism and value.
We would like to, once again, count on the support of the NAM members to the draft resolution titled: “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”, which will be considered by the UN General Assembly on 28 and 29 October.
We reject the clumsy campaign of manipulation and disinformation against Cuba by accusing it of getting involved in the conflict in Ukraine in a desperate attempt by the US government to lessen the almost unanimous demand of the United Nations in favor of lifting the criminal blockade. Cuba is not part of the armed conflict in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Such slander is added to the unprecedented persecution of the United States Department of State against our country’s cooperation agreements, its obsession to harm Cuba and its healthcare services. We ratify what was expressed by the NAM Ministers of Public Health in the framework of the 78th World Health Assembly last May, when they stated that “neither the discrediting campaigns nor the effects of the blockade have been able to prevent Cuba from continuing to save lives.”
We recognize the firm and courageous position of countries that, despite pressures and blackmails, have reaffirmed their commitment to the Cuban medical cooperation.
Cuba will always defend the just causes. We ratify our invariable solidarity with the Saharan people and the exercise of their self-determination. We support the legitimate right to self-determination and independence of Puerto Rico.
It is our responsibility to build a better world. In this forum, we reaffirm the call made to NAM by the historic leader of the Cuba Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, at the 6th Summit of our Movement, when he said: “Let us join together to demand our right to development, our right to life, our right to the future!”
Thank you very much.
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA