St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves speaking in a special session of parliament on Monday 5, says, Globally, Cuba and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are on the same page in the defence of the Charter of the United Nations and in the vanguard of advocating reform of the United Nations Security Council.
Gonsalves said both nations work closely with one another at the United Nations and its agencies, in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM); in GRULAC, and in the G77.
The Prime Minister stated that Cuba and SVG are at one, too, on the existential issues of climate change and global justice for all, including reparations for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies in our America and elsewhere.
“St. Vincent and the Grenadines unequivocally rejects and condemns the persistent efforts of the United States of America to interfere and intervene in the internal affairs of Cuba. St. Vincent and the Grenadines stands with the overwhelming majority of the member-states of the United Nations (including traditional friends of the USA) in the denunciation of the criminal economic embargo, the illegal, unilateral sanctions against Cuba, and the absurd declaration of Cuba as a state-sponsor of terrorism. Indeed, Cuba has been a victim of terrorism, supported by agencies of the US government, as for example, the blowing-up of the Cubana aircraft off the coast of Barbados in October 1976, and the hundreds of assassination attempts against the Cuban leaders, especially Fidel Castro”.
Gonsalves said St. Vincent and the Grenadines considers it unacceptable in international law, and immoral, for the USA to label the Cuban internationalist brigades of doctors, nurses, engineers, and other professionals to be victims of human trafficking. In this absurd way, the USA unwittingly devalues the genuine fight against human trafficking globally.
“As I have made it repeatedly clear in regional and global fora, although St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the USA have close economic, political, and people-to-people links, our country cannot reasonably be expected to have its foreign policy in relation to Cuba determined or constrained by the presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial politics of South Florida. It is high time that the USA effect an appropriate rapprochement with Cuba on the basis of mutual respect and dignity as befitting the peoples and governments of two great countries — Cuba and America. Such an eventuality would greatly please St. Vincent and the Grenadines. After all, we are friends of all; and we strive for a better world”, Gonsalves said.
