GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Cuba Wednesday reaffirmed its “unconditional and selfless friendship” with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), describing the regional integration grouping as a “vital exceptional institution.”
Presenting his credentials to CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett, the new Cuban ambassador to CARICOM, Jorge Francisco Soberon Luis, said Cuba will “never forget” the importance of establishing diplomatic relations in 1972 with Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“It was a paramount decision for relations between CARICOM and Cuba,” he said, adding that “unity, solidarity, integration, and cooperation are the solution to our challenges.
He said CARICOM and Cuba had achieved cooperation with extraordinary benefits for their peoples, also noting that a majority of people from CARICOM “has benefitted for decades from collaboration with Cuba.
‘We have the immediate possibility to continue articulating projects in multiple areas of significant importance for the present and well-being of our peoples for which we offer the will and decision of Cuba”.
He said Havana would continue to “actively support the special treatment that CARICOM deserves in the international community.”
The CARICOM Secretary-General said the accreditation of the new diplomat “is symbolic of the historical and friendly bonds that unite CARICOM with Cuba.”
She said over the years, CARICOM and Cuba had forged a solid and meaningful relationship that stems from and builds on the decision of the then-four independent CARICOM States to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1972 jointly.
“That symbolic and courageous act at the height of the cold war continues to unite our peoples and serves as the solid base for the firm and enduring collaboration between Cuba and our Community of Nations.
“The CARICOM-Cuba Triennial Summit process has been an effective mechanism for our leaders’ political interactions and for advancing cooperation initiatives to increase our self-reliance for the well-being of our people.”
Barnett said she hopes the tenure of the new Cuban diplomat will facilitate the implementation of commitments made by the leaders of CARICOM and Cuba in the Political Declaration adopted at the Eighth CARICOM-Cuba Summit held in Barbados December last year.
“We look forward to closing collaboration as we prepare for the seventh meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CARICOM and Cuba later this year in Guyana,” she said, adding that the diplomat was assuming his new role during the year in which CARICOM marks the critical milestone of 50 years.
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