Cuba highlights close ties with the Eurasian Economic Union

 Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel highlighted the ties of friendship and cooperation that unite the Caribbean nation with the Eurasian Economic Union member countries (EEU).

Speaking by video conference on Friday at a Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting, the President reiterated Cuba's commitment to the EEU as an Observer State, a decision approved at the last meeting of the Council on December 11, 2020.

The presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the acting prime minister of Armenia, and the President of Uzbekistan, also an EEU Observer State, were in attendance.

This is the first time the Cuban leader takes part in such encounters since the island was officially accepted as an Observer State.

Diaz-Canel commended the economic, trade, financial, and cooperation relations mutually beneficial that Cuba currently keeps with the mechanism members and highlighted the island's willingness to cooperate in all the priorities of the Eurasian Economic Commission for the current year.

In his statement, carried live by Cuban television, Diaz-Canel recalled that as never before, it is urgent to join efforts and wills in favor of the human species, cruelly stratified by the market, which marginalizes and excludes the majority, causing costly imbalances of all kinds.

He noted that those gaps are now more visible due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is responsible for the worst economic recession suffered by humanity since the Second World War.

The Cuban President also voiced strong rejection of the unjustified unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States government on the Russian Federation, denounced the permanent campaigns of discredit by the West against the Republic of Belarus, and the assassination attempt against President Alexander Lukashenko.

On behalf of Cuba, he thanked the Commission's member countries for their permanent rejection of the U.S. genocidal blockade against the island, intensified to unprecedented levels during the pandemic.