Vietnam Concerned by US Escalation of Economic Siege Against Cuba

Vietnam Voices Deep Concern Over New US Tariffs Targeting Cuba's Oil Suppliers
Vietnam is deeply concerned by the new US measure to impose additional tariffs on products from countries supplying oil to Cuba, affirmed Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang here today.

This decision, the spokesperson considered, "will seriously affect the socioeconomic activities and the life of the Cuban people."

Thu Hang was responding to a question about the recent executive order by US President Donald Trump, through which he declared a supposed national emergency, empowering his government to impose commercial tariffs on imports of products from countries that supply petroleum to Cuba.

Reaffirmation of Support for UN Resolutions
"Vietnam reaffirms its support for the resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly over the years, urging the United States to immediately lift its unilateral embargo against Cuba and take measures for dialogue and the improvement of relations with Cuba," she emphasized.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson lastly noted that, once again, Vietnam firmly reaffirms its traditional solidarity and friendship with the brotherly Cuban people.

Context of Cuba's Condemnation
In a statement issued after the signing of the aforementioned executive order on January 29, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba condemned, in the strongest terms, the new escalation by the US administration in its attempt to impose an absolute blockade on fuel supplies to the Caribbean nation.

To justify such an extreme action, it uses a long list of lies and defamatory accusations against Cuba, the official note pointed out, citing among them the absurd assertion that Cuba constitutes an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the national security of the United States.

"The President (Trump) himself and his government are aware that no one or very few can believe such mendacious arguments, but they do not care. Such is their contempt for truth, public opinion, and governmental ethics when it comes to endorsing their aggression against Cuba," the statement noted.

Analysis of US Foreign Policy Motives
It further emphasized that with this decision, "the government of the United States, through blackmail, threat, and direct coercion of third countries, attempts to impose additional components of pressure to the economic strangulation actions that, since Trump's first term, were arranged to prevent the entry of fuel into our country."

This fact, it assessed, consolidates a dangerous way of conducting US foreign policy through force and of exercising its ambitions to guarantee its imperialist hegemony.

The statement by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba also signified that the North American administration "reaches this point after having failed for 67 years to surrender and destroy a genuine and legitimate political and revolutionary process, of full sovereignty, social justice, and the promotion of peace and solidarity with the rest of the world."