Cuba condemns impact of coercive measures on the South at UN

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Monday denounced the impact of unilateral restrictions on the development and fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda on the countries of the South.

These provisions that are incompatible with the Agreements of the World Trade Organization must be eliminated as soon as possible, the Cuban head of State emphasized when speaking as president of the G77+China Summit on the opening day of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit.

Díaz-Canel rejected unilateral coercive measures as a clear violation of the United Nations Charter and an obstacle to the efforts of the affected States to achieve the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development in general.

“The international community, including the United Nations System, must continue to reject these measures strongly and work for their unconditional elimination,” he stressed.

The lack of progress should not be attributed to the absence of solutions, Díaz-Canel told the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the auspices of the UN General Assembly.

The Cuban leader described the global context as critical for developing nations, which are affected by “an unjust economic order that perpetuates inequalities and poverty.”

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the world had already deviated from the path towards the 2030 Agenda, he warned.

“By then, we will not eliminate hunger as we had agreed upon, on the contrary, currently 735 million suffer from chronic hunger, a figure that is higher than the one reported in 2015,” he added.

At this pace, none of the SDGs will be achieved and more than half of the agreed goals will be missed, Díaz-Canel went on to say.

In that regard, recalled the highest priority given by the G77+China to this event with the purpose of placing sustainable development once again at the center of the international agenda and providing the necessary political impetus.

The group has drafted a declaration to increase and speed up the implementation of innovative, transformative and ambitious concrete actions and measures that will guarantee the achievement of the SDGs.

The bloc has led a global call for an urgent reform of the international financial architecture, shared by a large number of world leaders and personalities, Díaz-Canel stressed.