BRUNO EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ PARILLA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cuba, in speaking of the unprecedented inequality in wealth, science, and technology and the immense suffering of people from hunger, stunting, unemployment, illiteracy, and the pandemic, pointed out that pharmaceutical multinationals earned $850 billion while the external debt of countries is still growing despite having been paid several times over.  Military expenditure, he continued, has exceeded $2 trillion.  While championing the universalization of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, he also questioned, “How much more could we maybe do if these resources were devoted to promoting health and development?  How many deaths as a result of COVID and other diseases might have been avoided?  How many boys and girls would be spared hunger and preventable illnesses?”  Warning countries that they cannot ignore the alarm bells of imminent climate disaster, he urged action without delay.  The philosophy of war and plundering and capitalism’s unreasonable pattern of production and consumption will lead to the apocalypse.

In sharing his observation that international relations are moving along a dangerous path, he decried the United States for its offensive of economic, military, political and diplomatic coercion.  Recalling the General Assembly’s adoption of the resolution to end the embargo against Cuba 30 years ago, he denounced the United States for the “act of economic war in times of peace,” for ignoring the resolution, creating material shortages, pressuring banking institutions and damaging the Cuban people.  In criticizing the United States’ “unfair inclusion” and “slanderous classification” of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism when Cuba “has been a victim of state terrorism”, he called out the United States for its double standards, inconsistency, selectivity and manipulation including on human rights.  Urging the United States to address the issues fuelling irregular migration, he commended the return of visa processing at the United States embassy in Havana and reiterated Cuba’s readiness to move towards better relations with the United States but only on the basis of mutual respect, sovereign equality and no attempts at undermining sovereignty and independence.

Expressing solidarity, he denounced the sanctions imposed on Venezuela and the attempts to destabilize Nicaragua.  Standing in full solidarity with the nations of the Caribbean, he voiced support for their claims for reparations.  He then reaffirmed his country’s historic commitment to the self-determination and independence of the people of Puerto Rico and called for the international community to settle its debt with Haiti through a special contribution for its reconstruction and development.  Expressing solidarity with the Vice President of Argentina and the Sahrawi people, he also reaffirmed his country’s commitment to peace in Colombia, urged the international community to provide support to the African Union on Agenda 2063 and advocated for a just, broad and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East.  Condemning the sanctions against Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation along with the foreign interference in Belarus, he reiterated his country’s support for the “One China Policy”.  On Ukraine, he called for a serious, diplomatic, constructive and realistic solution which respects international law and guarantees the security and sovereignty of all.  He concluded by pledging his country’s continued resistance to the attempts at hegemonism and domination.