Cuba, Antigua and Barbudas: Island Developing States and Friends

Saint John, Antigua and Barbuda – This Sunday morning, member of the Politburo and Vice President of the Republic of Cuba, Salvador Valdés Mesa, arrived at the international airport of this city at the head of the Greater Antilles delegation that will participate, from May 27 to 30, in the Fourth Conference of Island States. Small developing disease (SIDS).

Valdes Mesa will also pay an official visit to Antigua and Barbuda, within the framework of the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were established on April 6, 1994.

He will hold official meetings with His Excellency Mr. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister, and will be received by Sir Rodney Williams, Governor-General of this eastern Caribbean island, among other activities, including meetings with Cuban collaborators and the Solidarity Movement of this nation.

Upon his arrival in St. John’s, Valdes Mesa was received by the Cuban Ambassador here, Sergio Martinez Gonzalez, and Mr. Anthony Liverpool, Permanent Secretary of the Antigua Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Liverpool praised Cuba’s participation in the International Conference on Small Island Developing States, in particular the official visit by the Cuban Vice President to commemorate the three decades of relationship that includes medical cooperation, a part of which he has been currently working on these territories for more than 70 years. Cuban health professionals, and constant solidarity with this island in the face of natural disasters.

Valdes Mesa will speak at the general debate of the Fourth Conference on Small Island Developing States and in panel discussions at the meeting organized by the United Nations.

The Cuban delegation also consists of Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo; Deputy Minister of Public Health, Reynol Garcia, among other directors.

This conference will be held under the theme “Charting the Path to Resilient Prosperity” and takes place at a time when the current multidimensional crisis not only limits these countries’ right to development, but also jeopardizes the very existence of small island States as nations.

Small island developing States face the combined impact of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, low growth rates, high debt levels, inflation, food and energy crises, reduced official development assistance, and the worsening impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

For Cuba, the main challenge to the implementation of the Samoa Process, one of the documents governing the Group of Small Island Developing States, is the continued application and intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the island, and the arbitrary inclusion on the island. List of countries supposedly sponsoring terrorism.

The Greater Antilles, which has actively cooperated with the rest of the small island developing States, despite its limitations, considers it necessary to take measures that will provide increased access to financing on favorable terms and technical cooperation for our States.

The island also gives central importance to the process of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and to the strategic components of the Samoa Pathway, through which it implements the National Plan for Economic and Social Development to 2030 (PNDES). ).