New Delhi, Oct 23 (PTI) Cuba will submit a draft resolution in the UN General Assembly next week “condemning” the blockade imposed on it by the US over the last six decades, and is “confident” of once again receiving strong support from the international community, including India, its envoy Juan Carlos Marsan said on Thursday.
At a press meet here, Marsan asserted that Cuba believes in a “strong relationship” with India since the establishment of diplomatic relations with it 65 years ago, and said his country expected that “India once again is going to support this resolution”.
On October 28 and 29, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will consider, for the 33rd time, the draft resolution entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” he said.
The Cuban envoy to India alleged that the US government is “trying to put pressure on various governments”, mainly in Latin America, Europe and Africa, so that they do not support the Cuban resolution.
Marsan said, nevertheless, “we are confident that it (Cuba) will once again receive the firm support of the international community”.
“Cuba is going to submit a resolution condemning the blockade in the United Nations General Assembly. Last year, we got the support of 183 countries that voted in favour of the resolution presented by Cuba. Only two countries were against it, the United States and Israel, and abstention. The rest of the countries supported the Cuban resolution. And, we are going to do the same this time,” he said.
At the media interaction held at the Press Club of India, he also shared a PowerPoint presentation on the impact of the blockade in multiple spheres for Cuba, including the economic impact.
The cumulative damage in all these more than 60 years is estimated to be over USD 170 billion, and this is only “superficial (damage),” he shared in a slide.
“We cannot count… what is the cost of one human life. How much? We lost children because we don’t have the appropriate medication to combat cancer. So, you cannot count,” the envoy said.
For more than 65 years, Cuba has “suffered this policy of the blockade against our country, against our people,” he underlined.
Marsan said, “We are pretty sure that the international community is going to support”, once again, this resolution that Cuba is going to submit to the UN General Assembly, because people do believe that the “truth is on the Cuban side”.
And, the Cuban population will have the option to live without this blockade and to expand all the opportunities and possibilities that “all our political, economic and social systems are for our population,” he added.
“Of course, we are pretty sure that India once again is going to support this resolution, which India has done in the last 32 years, and also we believe in this strong relationship, and this year will be 65 years of establishment of our diplomatic relations,” the envoy said.
According to the US State Department website, the United States maintains a comprehensive economic embargo on the Republic of Cuba. In February 1962, President John F Kennedy proclaimed an embargo on trade between the United States and Cuba, in response to certain actions taken by the Cuban government, and directed the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury to implement the embargo, which remains in place today.
On ties with India, he said, the two countries are geographically very far but close through ties of history and visits of iconic leader Fidel Castro to India in the past.
Last year, 20,000 people from India travelled to Cuba, and “we expect more Indians will come and explore our country”.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
