Cuba will Continue to Firmly Defend the UN Charter

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez addressed the High Segment Meeting of the Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations’ Charter by affirming the island’s commitment to the defense of the Charter and International Law. Below is the full text of the Foreign Ministry’s remarks as published on the website of the Foreign Ministry.

Statement by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the High-Level Segment Meeting of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations. February 25, 2025.

We appreciate the intervention made by Yvan Gil, Foreign Minister of the sister nation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

In the current international juncture, it is necessary to reflect on the United Nations Organization that we have built and which celebrates this year its eightieth anniversary.

The aspiration to maintain peace, the purpose that guided the creation of the organization, remains a challenge. Tensions are rising, threats to international security are increasing and there are attempts to impose new forms of domination.

While trillions of dollars continue to be squandered in the arms race, fewer and fewer resources are allocated to the hundreds of millions of people who are victims of hunger and poverty, making it increasingly difficult to close the growing gap in wealth distribution.

Multilateralism is progressively weakening and the role of international organizations is being ignored. They are being threatened with conditioning and funding cuts.

The current US administration has shown its contempt for the multilateral system and its institutions. Its shameful withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council and the suspension of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are recent examples of this behavior.

By supporting the Palestinian genocide against the Palestinian people, the US government confirms its support to the philosophy of war and the doctrine of dispossession. Its plans to occupy Gaza and displace its population represent an escalation of ethnic cleansing, in flagrant violation of International Law.

The inaction of the Security Council in the face of these events damages the credibility of the UN.

I would like to propose that the Group of Friends of the Charter intervene at the upcoming Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to denounce the flagrant violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by the Occupying Power in the occupied Palestinian territories.

With the plans of domination announced by the new administration towards our region, the United States intends to launch a new imperialist offensive against the peoples of Our America, anchored in the archaic and interventionist Monroe Doctrine.

As part of this policy, we reject the decision, announced on January 20, to include Cuba again in the arbitrary and unilateral List of State Sponsor of Terrorism, a few days after the previous administration decided otherwise. Such a measure confirms the discredit of the aforementioned list; ignores the consistent demand of international voices, including this Group of Friends, and seeks to further tighten the impacts of the blockade against Cuba.

We invite the members of the Group of Friends to continue denouncing the new and dangerous imperialist attack against our region.