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We live in a globalized world which
moves toward multi-polarity
Address by H.E. Mr. Bruno Rodriguez
Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Cuba, at the General Debate of the Sixty
Ninth Session of the United Nations General
Assembly. New York, September 27, 2014
Mr. President;
Mr. Secretary-General;
Excellencies, Heads of State and Government;
Distinguished delegates;
We live in a globalized world which moves on towards
multi-polarity in an era characterized by a threat
to the survival of the human species. Neither the
US government nor NATO would be able to reverse that
trend by a new distribution of the world through the
use of arms. But there is a serious risk that, in
attempting to do that, the world becomes an
ungovernable place.
The huge nuclear and conventional arsenals
accumulated, the imposed annual military
expenditures amounting to 1 trillion 750 billion
dollars and the 2 per cent increase of the military
budget’s share of the GDP required from all NATO
member States will be of no use to cope with or
eradicate poverty, hunger, epidemics, migration
waves or avert the water, energy, food,
environmental and global economy crisis.
As has already been demonstrated, wherever the so
called “Unconventional Warfare” is applied, as
described in the Training Circular 18-01 of the
Special Operations Forces, and the novelties of the
United States Defense Strategy Quadrennial Review,
both of them issued in 2010, chaos will be imposed
through the destabilization or destruction of
States; the proliferation of violent and extremist
groups; the tearing-up of nations, cultures and
religions, which will engender serious threats to
regional and international peace and security.
It is necessary to reject the militarization of
cyberspace, the illegal and covert intervention of
the information systems of some countries with the
purpose of using them to perpetrate aggressive
actions against third countries and stir up
conflicts; as well as the global espionage on
governments and entire societies.
The extraterritorial implementation of the US laws
to the detriment of other sovereign nations is ever
more aggressive; there is a proliferation of
unilateral sanctions, particularly in the area of
finances, as a foreign policy instrument. The use
of the US courts of justice to apply multi-million
fines, even on its allies, based on court rulings
that violate International Law, has become an
instrument of punishment, threats and to spuriously
securing financial resources.
If governments decline the defense of their
sovereignty and the implementation of their own laws
aimed at protecting the international financial
system standards, the legitimate interests of their
nations, companies and citizens, they would be
creating the necessary conditions for the
dissemination of these practices that jeopardize the
independence of all States and the rule of
International Law.
Media emporiums are ever more linked to the
hegemonic goals pursued by western powers. They
continue to launch their misinformation campaigns.
They manipulate facts in a shameless and cynical way
and create a public opinion matrix that favors
aggressions.
A new international order is required, where there
is no room for the philosophy of war and the
plundering of natural resources.
The foreign intervention in Syria should come to an
end. It is inconceivable that western powers
encourage, finance and arm terrorist groups to pit
them against one State while attempting to combat
their crimes in another State, as it is currently
the case in Iraq.
The US government is infringing upon International
Law when it launches, in contempt for the United
Nations Organization, unilateral bombings with
complete disregard for national borders or sovereign
States, even if it dissembles them under doubtful
coalitions.
The attempt to deploy NATO up to the Russian borders
will have serious consequences for international
peace and security and for the stability of Europe.
The sanctions imposed against Russia are both
immoral and unjust. The US strategic deployment in
Asia and the Pacific will jeopardize the sovereignty
of all nations in that region.
Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, most
recently in the Gaza Strip, should not go unpunished
under the Security Council veto. Palestine should
already be a member State of the United Nations,
which is to be established within the borders agreed
in 1967 and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The General Assembly is to exercise the prerogatives
entrusted to it by the Charter given the currently
dangerous and unstable international situation,
which is full of threats and challenges. The
Security Council should be rebuilt upon democracy,
transparency, a fair representation of the countries
of the South that are discriminated-against among
Permanent and Non-Permanent Members, credibility,
strict observance of the United Nations Charter,
without double standards, obscure procedures or the
anachronic veto. The United Nations Organization
requires a profound reform and the defense of its
principles. The Secretary-General should be an
advocator and guarantor of international peace.
Mr. President:
The 1.2 billion persons who live under extreme
poverty, the 842 millions who suffer from chronic
hunger; the 774 million illiterate adults and the 57
million out-of-school boys and girls are a
confirmation that the Millennium Development Goals,
which are questionable from a methodological point
of view, were a mirage.
There has been and there still is a lack of
political will among the governments of
industrialized States, where a blind and ineffective
selfishness prevails. Voracious transnational
emporiums increasingly concentrate the ownership
over huge resources. The unequal distribution of
wealth is ever more brutal. A new international
economic order is inevitably an imperative.
Under these circumstances, the coordination of the
Post 2015 Development Agenda could hardly be a
hope. Nevertheless, the attempt to achieve it
should become our most urgent task. This should be
the outcome of an intergovernmental and inclusive
negotiation. The resulting document should not be
the interpretation of the consensus by some, but
rather the consensus itself.
It is urgent to consider Sub-Saharan Africa a
priority. It is necessary to jointly and resolutely
confront, through a sufficient and genuine
cooperation, the Ebola epidemic that is affecting
some countries of the continent.
Cuba decided to maintain its medical cooperation in
all the 32 African countries where more than 4 000
Cuban specialists are working, and expand it, under
the leadership of the World Health Organization, to
the other most affected countries, as has already
been announced. Our medical and paramedical staff
will do it on a voluntary basis.
We call upon the international community,
particularly the industrialized countries with
abundant resources, to vigorously respond to the
appeal launched by the United Nations and WHO, so
that it could be possible to immediately count on
the financial, health and scientific resources
required to eradicate that scourge and prevent it
from taking a higher toll on human lives.
Likewise, all the necessary resources should be
contributed in support of the Agenda 2063 of the
African Union, which has established the roadmap for
the development of that region.
In these five decades, 325 000 Cuban health workers
have assisted 158 nations of the South, including 39
African countries, where 76 000 cooperation workers
have served. A total of 38 000 medical doctors have
been trained, free of charge, from 121 countries -3
392 of them from 45 African nations. If Cuba, a
small and blockaded country, has been able to do it,
how much else could be done in favor of Africa with
the cooperation from all of us, particularly from
the wealthiest States?
Mr. President:
At the Second Summit of the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States held in Havana, it was
agreed that, in order to achieve the goal of having
more just and inclusive societies, it was
indispensable to have a better distribution of
wealth and revenues, eradicate illiteracy, provide
quality education for all, establish a true food
security and universal coverage health systems,
among other human rights.
The solemn Proclamation of Latin America and the
Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which was signed by
the Heads of State and Government of the region,
consecrates the respect for the principles and rules
of International Law; the promotion of a culture of
peace, nuclear disarmament and general and complete
disarmament; as well as the inalienable right of
every State to choose its political, economic and
social system.
We likewise took on the commitment of turning Latin
America and the Caribbean into a region free from
colonialism and supported the Puerto Rican people
undeniable right to free-determination and
independence.
The Havana’s Summit recognized that the current
economic, financial and environmental crisis has
harshly hit the Small Island Developing States,
among them the Caribbean nations. Their efforts to
enhance the living standards of their peoples should
not be punished by classifying these States as
middle income countries, based on the schematic
estimation of per capita incomes, thus overlooking
their peculiarities and vulnerabilities.
The Latin America and Caribbean region has found in
CELAC an autochthonous and legitimate space where
they are able to forge, from their rich diversity,
the unity indispensable to materialize the dreams of
the National Heroes of achieving the definitive
independence of “Our America” and making a
substantial contribution to the “equilibrium of the
world.”
In that endeavor, the celebration of the
BRICS-UNASUR conference, the meeting between Chinese
leaders and representatives of Latin American and
Caribbean countries and the foundation of the
CELAC-China Forum in Brasilia on July last, as was
agreed in Havana, have been major landmarks.
We welcome the Fortaleza Declaration adopted also at
that moment in Brazil at the Sixth Summit of BRICS,
whose economies account for 25 per cent of the
world’s GDP and almost 40 per cent of the population
of the planet, as well as the foundation of the
Development Bank and a Common Fund of Foreign
Currency Reserves, which are crucial for the
countries of the South and the construction of a new
international financial architecture.
We would like to express our all-out solidarity with
the Bolivarian and ‘Chavista’ Revolution which keeps
on struggling and defending itself from
destabilizing actions and foreign interference under
the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro.
We support the dignifying battle that is being waged
by Argentina against speculation funds and oppose
the interfering US courts rulings that violate
International Law.
We likewise reiterate our firm support to
Argentina’s legitimate rights over the Malvinas
Islands.
We reiterate our unswerving support to the struggle
that is being waged by Ecuador against the
despoliation and ecological damages caused by
transnational companies.
On the eve of observing the International Decade of
Afro descendants (2015-2024), we would like to
remind you that this year marks the 210th
anniversary of the independence of Haiti, whose
Revolution for independence and against slavery was
the forerunner of all liberation movements in Latin
America and the Caribbean. Haiti deserves a special
contribution for its reconstruction and development,
under the sovereign leadership of its government,
for which we call upon the entire international
community. We support the Caribbean’s claim for
reparations from the colonial powers for the horrors
of slavery.
Mr. President:
The State Department has again included Cuba in its
unilateral and arbitrary list of States that sponsor
international terrorism. Its true purpose is to
increase the persecution of our international
financial transactions in the whole world and
justify the blockade policy.
Under the present administration, there has been an
unprecedented tightening of the extraterritorial
character of the blockade, with a remarkable and
unheard-of emphasis on financial transactions
through the imposition of multi-million fines on
banking institutions of third countries. So is the
case for the scandalous and unjust mega-fine imposed
on the French bank BNP Paribas.
Neither does it give up promoting destabilization in
Cuba. Every year it allocates millions to this
purpose and increasingly resorts to covert methods,
including the use of the information and
communication technologies.
The USAID-sponsored Zunzuneo project, which not only
violates Cuban laws but also the US laws, is the
latest evidence of that.
The most recent disclosures about the use of young
people from our continent in subversive actions in
Cuba -a project that is funded and executed by the
USAID-, confirm the countless denunciations made by
the Cuban government against the continuity of
illegal plans to subvert Cuba’s internal order, in
violation of the sovereignty of Cuba, of third
countries and of International Law.
We can not but recall that this month marks the
sixteenth year of the unjust imprisonment of three
Cubans from the group of Five –Gerardo, Ramón,
Antonio-, who confronted with utmost altruism the
terrorist plans that are organized within the US
territory against our country. I reiterate, on
behalf of the people and the government of Cuba,
that we will not cease in our efforts to call for
their return to their homeland.
Cuba, for its part, keeps calm and ready to
establish a mutually respectful and responsible
dialogue with the US Government based on
reciprocity.
Likewise, Cuba continues to make progress in the
updating of its social and economic model in the
midst of an adverse international situation,
characterized by the global economic crisis and the
tightening of the blockade.
The updating of Cuba’s economic model is aimed at
ensuring the wellbeing, equity and social justice
for all Cubans. The changes that we are introducing
are aimed at preserving the achievements attained by
the Revolution, the ones so many generations have
fought for.
They are intended to build an ever more just,
prosperous and sustainable Cuban socialism.
Thank you very much.
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