Statement by Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, General Director of Press, Communication and Image of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba

Statement by Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, General Director of Press, Communication and Image of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, at the 9th General Assembly of the Global Public Diplomacy Network

Let us thank the Cultural Foundation (Katara) and the Secretariat of the Global Public Diplomacy Network (GPDNet), especially the Director General of Katara and President of GPDNet, Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, for organizing this ninth Assembly. We particularly thank the Executive Director of the Katara Public Diplomacy Center, Maryam Al Saad, for the facilities and courtesies provided for the effective participation of member countries.

For us, the past year has been one of intense work in the exercise of public diplomacy, starting with the presidency held by Cuba in the Group of 77 and the relevant international events that took place at the global level.

It remains the essential objective of our work to empower and interact with the young generations for responsible use of social networks and information technologies, to contribute to understanding and cooperation between communities and countries. Culture and education are essential tools for public diplomacy that promotes the values of peace, coexistence, and mutual respect, to transform the world in which we live and move towards a more inclusive and less selfish development model.
 
The existence of the global network is in itself essential to achieve these objectives in public diplomacy, we need more cohesion, interaction and horizontal cooperation between members to achieve greater visibility.
We must individually and collectively achieve a greater capacity for initiative in social communication to serve our communities and be influential on global stages.

Cuba considers that in order to advance in these purposes, it is necessary for the member countries of the network to identify the axes of work for the next tenth assembly in 2025, which will constitute a well-deserved tribute to these efforts that are promoted today by the Network. The launch of the International Day of Public Diplomacy constitutes one of these axes that will allow us to make visible the essence of our community.

In this regard, we wish to present you a short video of almost 3 minutes that summarizes our actions in public diplomacy and interaction with social media, from the last Assembly to the present. I invite you to enjoy this material.