As reported by the Parliament on Twitter, the head of the Assembly exchanged with the MEP at the headquarters of the National Capitol as part of the work agenda of the Italian politician and writer.

During the day on Monday, Smeriglio was received by Félix Martínez, president of the Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee, and Rolando González, vice president of its International Relations Committee, to discuss current national and international issues.

The MEP, a member of the Democratic Party in Italy, toured rooms of interest in the Capitol along with the delegation that accompanies him.

(Taken from ACN)

According to an official statement, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made these remarks during a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The foreign minister criticized Washington for clinging to ideological prejudices and trying to curb Chinese investment with its new controls on the export and trade of machinery and semiconductors for supercomputers and artificial intelligence from the Asian country.

He denounced that these are violations of free trade norms and urged to correct them because they harm both the interests and the legitimate rights of Beijing.

Wang also called on the White House to pay attention to the report of the recent Congress of the Communist Party (CPC) of China, as it contains the future aspirations of the country in multiple aspects and defines the path to follow to achieve them.

“If the United States really wants to understand China, please study the CCP’s 20th Congress report carefully. China’s domestic and foreign policies are open and transparent, its strategies are transparent,” he noted.

Blinken, for his part, indicated that the world expects more cooperation between the world’s two main powers and expressed Washington’s willingness to maintain communication on the future of relations, the official note said.

The sides also discussed the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and Wang called for calm, more diplomatic efforts and peaceful negotiations.

Wang Yi stressed that all parties to the conflict “must exercise restraint, make a calm decision and intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent the situation from further escalating or even getting out of control.”

The Chinese foreign secretary also pointed out that “putting Sino-US relations back on the path of stable development” is in the interests of both countries and the international community.

Last July, the two heads of diplomacy spoke in the context of the G20 Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, and thus gave continuity to other high-level contacts held by representatives of both countries.

During that meeting, they agreed to promote intergovernmental consultations and also collaborate in areas such as public health and confronting climate change.

But the exchanges are not prospering amid renewed friction over issues such as visits by US politicians to Taiwan, economic-commercial restrictions and charges against Chinese citizens accused of harassing compatriots on US soil.

(With information from Prensa Latina)
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I thank each and everyone for their presence.

I don’t know if you’ve already seen the images of the waterspout and the lightning over the Morro. Do we have the pictures? (shown on screen). Let’s hope there was no damage.

I appreciate your presence.

On November 2 and 3, the United Nations General Assembly will consider for the thirtieth time the agenda item entitled “Need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”

This will occur in a special context, marked by the devastating effects of Hurricane Ian, by the effects of a multidimensional global crisis that includes an international economic crisis and an imminent threat of a global recession, food crisis, energy crisis, health crisis, and other . In a context also of unprecedented intensification of the blockade against Cuba, which comes from the second half of 2019, based on a policy of the preceding Republican Government of the United States, of economic suffocation, of economic war, of deliberately seeking the collapse of the Cuban economy and of the country, without measuring the serious humanitarian consequences or the impacts of that objective, which will never be met, but which would undoubtedly cause unpredictable consequences.

The Report, which is already available to you online, and is available to our people, our country, and the diplomatic corps accredited in Havana, reveals these impacts.

The blockade is not a new design, but it has been surgically better designed, targeting each of the country’s main incomes, viciously seeking to increase the impact on the daily life of our population, based on the best expression of that policy that is the Memorandum of Undersecretary Lester Mallory of April 1960, which recognizes that the objective of the blockade is to depress nominal and real wages, cause hunger, despair, suffering and the overthrow of the Government. The Helms Burton Act of 1996 codifies that same policy. And in the maximum pressure measures against Cuba, the more than 200 additional blocking sanctions applied by President Donald Trump, those same cruel objectives are sought.

I will give a new information. Between August 2021 and February 2022, the losses caused by the blockade are in the order of 3,806 million dollars. It is a historical record amount for a short period such as these seven months. The Gross Domestic Product of Cuba, according to very conservative data, could have grown, despite the adverse circumstances facing the Cuban economy, by 4.5% in that period, had these measures not been applied.

During the first 14 months of the Biden government, the damage caused by the blockade amounted to 6,364 million dollars, also a historical record. This means more than 454 million dollars per month and more than 15 million dollars per day, in damages.

In six decades, at current prices, the accumulated damages add up to 154,217 million dollars. An exorbitant figure for a small economy, without great natural resources, insular, underdeveloped, like Cuba’s. But at the value of gold, that is, per ounce of gold, taking into account depreciation, the accumulated damages reach the enormous figure of 1 trillion 391 thousand 111 million dollars. That is, one million million plus 391 billion dollars. Imagine, imagine our people, what Cuba could have done with those resources. What would Cuba be like today if the country would have had those resources?

The economic blockade is the central element that defines the nature of the United States policy towards Cuba. It was strengthened to unprecedented levels under President Trump.

Today the policy of President Joseph Biden against Cuba is unfortunately and inertially the same Republican policy. No changes have been made to that policy.

The surgical design pursued by each income, each source of financing and supply in the country is maintained, and is a daily theme. They are the regulations in force and it is the current practical conduct of the US authorities.

The impact therefore has a greater dimension and from the humanitarian point of view more perverse and damaging.

Blocking has gone to an aggressive quality that it hasn’t had in the past.

Despite the positive announcements, in the right dimension, but extremely limited, and practically inapplicable, in May 2016 by the US authorities, the blockade has not changed in any way in its scope or depth.

The performance of the Cuban economy in the last two years has been inevitably marked by the coincidence of these impacts with those of the Covid-19 pandemic itself, the exorbitant expenses to which it forced our country, and the consequences of the most recent international crises including the rise in food and fuel prices.

The existence of the blockade is an undeniable reality. No one could seriously or sanely say that the blockade does not exist or is a mere pretext.

It is totally tangible and reaches and harms every Cuban family, Cubans residing in the United States, American citizens, and individuals and companies around the planet.

It is aimed at causing the inability of the country to meet the fundamental needs of the population.

The blockade causes extreme direct damage due to the integral gear of its measures, but at the same time it has the cruel and practical purpose of depriving the country of the financial income that is essential to acquire supplies, equipment, parts and pieces, technology, software, and then it also causes damage in that sense. This is the case, for example, of food, in the midst of a situation of shortages, shortages, long queues, anxiety, in the population facing difficulties even in ensuring the basic basket, which requires a highly effective effort by the Government and entities, or to ensure people’s daily lives.

It is true that Cuba can buy food in other markets, and it is true that it buys food even in the United States. But the blockade deprives Cuba of the essential financial resources to make those purchases in the United States or to make similar purchases in third markets. I will return to that topic.

The national electric power system is going through an extremely serious situation, which is the result of serious limitations, of lack of fuel in some cases and measures, but above all of obstacles to acquiring spare parts and other resources, by depriving the country of the financing that is essential for to do so, beyond the fact that the blockade prevents the use of US technologies, to buy in the US market. In other words, the blockade is a dual effect, which must necessarily be taken into account.

It is not just bilateral, it is extraterritorial. It is direct and at the same time deprives the country of financial resources in areas where there are no specific prohibitions on purchases in third markets.

Cuba cannot acquire, anywhere, in any way, technologies, equipment, parts, pieces, digital technologies or software, which have 10% US components, which is a direct impact, as serious as that of the lack of foreign currency to guarantee supplies.

The measures of direct, financial, physical, extortion persecution, the effect of intimidation, the effect of the high country risk resulting from these actions, persecutes each one of our commercial, investment or financial transactions, since it places us in serious dilemmas. to supply companies.

This is the case of banking-financial relations. Dozens and dozens of banks deny services to Cuba for fear of US fines. Others are forced to settle from illegal, extraterritorial actions by the US government to avoid those fines. And it causes damage to a natural presence of the Cuban financial system in the international one.

The direct persecution of producers, carriers, carriers, shipping companies, insurers and reinsurance companies, seriously hinders and makes our fuel purchases more expensive by more than a third, and sometimes up to half.

Of course, this situation has had to be faced with emergency measures, and our people understand and accompany the daily difficulties that we all suffer, and at the same time assist, contribute to the investments and palliative measures that the Government, in conditions of emergency attention to electro-energy system and other needs, rigorously and efficiently meets. This is the case, for example, of blackouts.

Between January 2021, new data, and February 2022, a total of 642 direct actions were reported by foreign banks that, faced with the threat of the US financial system, refused to provide services to the country. In that short period, 642 actions against foreign banks. Unilateral, coercive, and illegal actions, from the point of view of international law of the national law that governs the conduct of these banks, from the point of view of the universally accepted norms of the international financial system.

Dozens of diplomatic missions, of Cuban embassies today lack banking services.

In various latitudes, a private Cuban citizen, a natural legal person, is deprived of opening personal accounts for the sole fact of being a Cuban national, which is deeply discriminatory.

The drug production capacity of the country has been seriously affected by these concepts, as I already mentioned. Cuba produces 60% of the medicines it basically needs. But to produce these medicines, it needs not only some raw materials, parts and pieces, some components, but also obviously needs financing, which the oppressive and comprehensive application of the blockade prevents from reaching our country.

In the face of these adversities, in the face of the hostility of the US government, our country does not stop or stop renewing itself.

Cuba changes every day, and will continue to change. Cuba renews itself all the time. What does not change, what is not renewed, what is anchored in the past, is the blockade policy.

We overcome Covid with our own vaccines. Despite the fact that the United States government, at the peak of the pandemic, applied exemptions, that is, it applied to dozens of countries under coercive or unilateral measures, that these be condoned, temporarily relaxed, for humanitarian reasons. And those countries under sanctions regimes were allowed to purchase vaccines, to purchase medical oxygen, to purchase lung ventilators.

Why was Cuba not included among the countries to which these temporary exemptions were applied? It was a deliberately cruel act. It is the recognition that the blockade also suffocates and kills.

The United States government hindered the acquisition of medical oxygen in third countries, when there was a failure of our main plant that caused a crisis in the country; which did not cause loss of life thanks to an extraordinary and effective effort by our people, the armed institutions, the health system and the Government.

The blockade prevented the acquisition of pulmonary ventilators. We didn’t stop. We produced our own lung ventilators with Cuban prototypes.

The Cuban economy is going through moments of great difficulty. The transformations, the growing autonomy and development of the socialist state enterprise have not stopped. The expansion and registration of thousands of new micro, small and medium-sized companies, both state and private, fundamentally private. The development of science, technology and innovation as a pillar of government management and of the transformations that ensure the progress of our socialist model.

The referendum on the Family Code, recently concluded in the midst of difficulties, shows a majority consensus. The transformations that the country applies in all its areas, based on the principle of changing everything that needs to be changed and moving towards a fairer, more humane, more democratic socialism for all our people.

We are all making a superhuman effort today to rescue the levels of economic activity that have been seriously affected by the circumstances that I explained.

It works very actively to diversify the productive matrix. There is a growing participation of entrepreneurship, as they are called, of state and non-state companies in these endeavors and the opportunities for foreign investment within our development policies have increased.

The blockade continues to limit these efforts, we will never give up our project of social justice.

The rejection of the blockade was one of the most discussed topics in the speeches of the Heads of State and Government at the recent High-Level Session of the General Assembly at the end of September. Forty of them loudly demanded the end of this policy. Some called for Cuba to be removed from the United States government’s arbitrary, unjust, capricious, immoral and illegal list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Others appreciated the cooperation, especially the international medical cooperation, that Cuba offers in a modest and quiet way.

This general debate reliably showed that the blockade policy only causes isolation and discredit to the United States government, which is opposed by the majority of Americans, the majority of Cubans residing in the United States and in other countries, who receives the practically unanimous rejection of the international community and that it has to be lifted since the world has changed and some government of the United States will have to do it.

The repudiation of a criminal policy that has neither defeated nor achieved the objectives it set for itself is universal, although it causes a lot of human damage, it causes suffering every day at every meal when the Cuban family meets at night when there is a blackout, when there are difficulties to guarantee medicine for a sick person, our people suffer.

Cuba has the right to live without a blockade, it has the right to live in peace. Cuba would be better off without a blockade. Everyone would be better off without lockdown. The United States would be a better country without a blockade against Cuba. The world would be better without the blockade against Cuba.

Thank you very much.

The first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, alluded today to the celebration of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of China and conveyed the best wishes for success during the conclave.

From his official profile on Twitter, the president assured that the results of that meeting, considered a key event in facing current challenges and designing strategic plans for the next five years in the Asian nation, “will be a new encouragement for progressive forces worldwide.”

On the occasion of the celebration of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of China (PCCh), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba sent a congratulatory message to the Chinese communists in which it highlights the political significance of this important event.

“We are pleased to see the proven ability and wisdom of the Chinese communist vanguard to lead its people in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and unity, in building socialism, in the economic development of the country and in the consolidation of China as a factor of stability and balance at the global level”, highlights the text.

The message also refers to the successes achieved by the Communist Party of China, based on the application of Marxism and the important theoretical and practical contributions to the construction of socialism, which has made possible the internal construction of the Party, the fight against corruption, the eradication of extreme poverty, among other social, economic and political achievements that make China “a global leader in innovation, always defending the legitimate right to development of the countries of the South, multilateralism, the principles of International Law and the role of the United Nations”.

Likewise, the letter assures that interpartisan relations will continue to be a pillar and an essential component of the ties between Cuba and China.

He appreciates the invariable support of the Chinese Communist Party for Cuba’s fight against the blockade and ratifies the unalterable position of the Greater Antilles, of adherence to the One China principle.

“Receive our best wishes for success in the celebration of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of China, convinced that its results will represent a new stimulus for all progressive forces worldwide,” the message concludes.

(With information from the PCC website and Twitter of the Presidency)

The head of state, who in his capacity as president of the National Defense Council received the minister dressed in an olive green uniform, confirmed to the visitor the significance of his stay in Cuba, not only in the exchange between the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam and the Ministry of the Interior, but also in the field of bilateral and partisan relations between our governments, parties and peoples.

For us – he said – Vietnam is a brother country; With Vietnam we have a close relationship of brotherhood and friendship. The historical ties that unite us are very strong, he added, which are based on the relationship between Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and Ho Chi Minh, as well as later on the entire bond of continuity that we have had over the years with Vietnamese leaders.

For those of us who belong to my generation, which was born with the Revolution, all of this has profound significance, he commented. We are part of a generation that grew up hearing about the exploits of the Vietnamese people in the fight against Yankee imperialism and many other stories, evoked the Cuban president, who assured that over the years and from the different responsibilities he has held he has been able to feel “the support of Vietnam, the Vietnamese affection towards Cuba, as we Cubans also profess it towards you”.

In detail and in the middle of a relaxed conversation, typical of those that happen between friends, President Díaz-Canel explained to General To Lam details about the current situation in Cuba, where our process of socialist construction is fundamentally oriented towards building each time a fairer society, with greater social justice, he said.

He then spoke about the ferocious campaign to discredit the Revolution that imperialism is carrying out; the economic suffocation with which they have tried to bend our people by tightening the economic, commercial and financial blockade even more; and the way in which, during the most difficult moments of the confrontation with the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the Government of the United States did everything possible so that Cuba did not have access to vital resources.

Creative resistance, assured the Head of State, is what has allowed us to advance in the solution to these problems despite the difficulties. As a clear example of this, he shared with the visitor how, with our talent and efforts, with the participation of our health system, our scientists and the people, we were able to develop a successful strategy to combat the virus: three vaccines and two vaccine candidates, as well as build lung ventilators to supply those who were never allowed to reach Cuba.

After recounting many of these actions implemented in the country over the past three years, the Cuban president assured, once again, that “for us, cooperation and collaboration with Vietnam are very important.”

With the Vietnamese we have the broadest, most honest, most open dialogue, because there is mutual understanding of the problems we have to face, which are the same, he pointed out.

“For this reason, both in the political sphere, as well as in partisan relations, in which we have a high level of dialogue, we agree on our ideas and our positions in international events, we also systematically share a partisan exchange of mutual analysis of experiences,” the president specified.

The Minister of Public Security of that Asian country then spoke of gratitude for the support offered to Vietnam from Cuba, who also ratified the will to continue promoting bilateral ties between the two nations. “In the relationship between the two ministries, in particular, and the relationship between the two peoples, there is no limit that could be a difficulty for this relationship, which is developing and will be more fruitful in the future,” General To The m.

Also present during the friendly dialogue were the member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and Minister of the Interior, Division General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas; as well as the Vietnamese ambassador to Cuba, Le Thanh Tung, along with members of both delegations.
“For this reason, both in the political sphere, as well as in partisan relations, in which we have a high level of dialogue, we agree on our ideas and our positions in international events, we also systematically share a partisan exchange of mutual analysis of experiences,” the president specified.

The Minister of Public Security of that Asian country then spoke of gratitude for the support offered to Vietnam from Cuba, who also ratified the will to continue promoting bilateral ties between the two nations. “In the relationship between the two ministries, in particular, and the relationship between the two peoples, there is no limit that could be a difficulty for this relationship, which is developing and will be more fruitful in the future,” General To The m.

Also present during the friendly dialogue were the member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and Minister of the Interior, Division General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas; as well as the Vietnamese ambassador to Cuba, Le Thanh Tung, along with members of both delegations.

(By: Yaima Puig Meneses)

In the fraternal exchange, both leaders referred to the historic relationship that both countries have maintained since 1960, the year in which diplomatic ties were established.

The Cambodian Premier recalled his visit to Cuba in 1999, when he received the José Martí Order from the hands of the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. Likewise, he highlighted medical collaboration as a pillar in the relationships developed over the years.

For his part, Raúl referred to Cambodia’s management as pro tempore president of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ratified the will to strengthen Cuba’s cooperation with that regional bloc.

On the Cuban side, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gerardo Peñalver Portal, also participated.

(With information from Granma)

Through the Twitter account of the Presidency, it was indicated that the president thanked the Italian friends for the meeting and listened to proposals and concerns regarding foreign investment.

“In the midst of these difficult circumstances, that you come says a lot about your commitment and understanding with Cuba,” he said.

The representatives of the European country expressed the importance of the friendship between both countries and the will to help.

“We did not come to criticize, but to find solutions,” they declared before the highest leadership of the Antillean nation.

Also present at the meeting were Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister of Cuba, and Alejandro Gil Fernández, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning.

Marrero Cruz confirmed to the Italians that updating the country’s economic and social strategy includes foreign participation, with which Cuba is open to hearing proposals.

Relations between the two nations have been strengthened in recent times, as demonstrated by the meeting between Díaz-Canel and Marcos Papacci, president of the National Italy-Cuba Friendship Association (ANAIC), on August 21.

At that time, the Cuban head of state thanked the largest of the Antilles for its support in confronting the demonstrations against Cuba, when the events of the Hotel Saratoga and the help received during the tragedy of the fire in Matanzas.

(With information from ACN)

Gerardo Peñalver Portal was received at the Nội Bài international airport by Le Cộng Tien, deputy director general for the Americas of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Cuban ambassador Orlando Hernández Guillén.

The delegation headed by Peñalver Portal will hold interviews with high-ranking Vietnamese officials, will share with members of the friendship association, with Cubans residing in the Indochinese country, and will visit centers of historical-cultural interest in the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

The First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba makes his first tour of the Indochina region, after being appointed in December 2021. The tour, which also includes the countries of Cambodia and Laos, will take place from August 28 to September 7.

Vietnam is the first stop on this work trip, where, according to the Cuban diplomat, they will ratify the exemplary ties of brotherhood, comprehensive cooperation and political trust between both countries, forged by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and the legendary Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.

The extensive work program will allow exchanges, after two years of the covid-19 pandemic, with “three friendly countries” on the bilateral agenda and international issues of common interest, said the Cuban diplomat.

(Con información de Embacuba Vietnam/Cubaminrex)

The Cuban and U.S. delegations to this meeting will be led by the Ministry of Foreign Relations’ general director for the U.S. Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, and by the State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for South America and Cuba Edward Alex Lee, respectively. To be reviewed are the agenda of topics established during the first meeting, held September 11, 2015, in Havana; results achieved over the intervening months; and the complex issues between the two countries which are pending solution, including the lifting of the blockade.

The Bilateral Commission will define the next steps to be taken by the two countries over the coming months, such as possible mutually beneficial agreements, technical meetings on areas of common interest, exchanges on issues of bilateral and multilateral interest, high level visits, among other issues, as part of the process of moving toward normalization of relations.

The previous day, November 9, set to take place in the U.S. capital is the first meeting of bilateral talks on implementation and adherence to the law between government agencies from the two governments, with the objective of increasing cooperation in these areas.

(Granma)