“Continuing to use such sanctions as coercive policies do not solve the current crisis, but exacerbates it,” President Miguel-Diaz Canel highlighted.
March 8 (teleSUR) On Monday, Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel condemned the U.S. and European Union (EU) economic sanctions against Russia and called for a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the armed conflict in Ukraine.
“Continuing to use such sanctions as coercive policies do not solve the current crisis, but exacerbates it and further aggravates the economic recession prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Diaz-Canel stated.
“We are clear that the international norms principles oppose unilateralism,” he added, recalling that Cuba has faced a U.S. economic blockade since 1962.
He also condemned the prohibition of the outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in Europe, a strategy seeking to create a monopoly on information by eliminating alternative journalistic coverage of the war.
Cancillería de Cuba@CubaMINREXOrganización gubernamental de CubaThe strengthening of the extraterritorial application of the blockade has been another of the distinctive manifestations of the intensification of this policy, with a marked effect on Cuba’s international financial relations.
“The armed conflict could have been avoided if U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had correctly complied with the security guarantees required by Russia, which feared this military alliance’s expansion towards its borders,” he recalled.
Diaz-Canel also called on all parties involved in the armed conflict to protect the Ukrainian civilian population, their properties, and infrastructure, as the rules of international humanitarian law establish.
“Our position is clear: we advocate a serious and constructive diplomatic solution to the conflict, which takes into account the position of all parties, guaranteeing all countries’ sovereignty,” the Foreign Affairs Minister Multilateral Affairs Specialist Yailin Castro stated.
