CARICOM Summit | Cuban president wants fair treatment of small states by developed countries

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has criticised the international community for squandering money and resources on military forces and wars while leaving little room for hope of small nations like those in the Caribbean.

Addressing at a special luncheon of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Conference at the Sugar Mill Restaurant in Montego Bay on Thursday, Diaz-Canel spoke of an increasingly unequal world where market access for products from the region is blocked, “where technological resources crucial for development are denied, and where nations like us have lost centuries of progress by feeding the progress of our metropolises”.

Declaring his bias for the region, Díaz-Canel said that was why Cuba will always support the just demands of the Caribbean to receive fair and differentiated treatment in access to trade and investments.

He said his country rejects the inclusion of CARICOM member states on unilateral lists of supposed non-cooperative jurisdictions drawn up by the centres of international financial capital.

His comments come in the wake of European Union blacklisting several Caribbean countries as tax havens.

“The challenge that our small states must face to achieve sustainable development is nothing new, but it is greater every day,” he said while lamenting the obstacles and dangers derived from an unfair international order.

Díaz-Canel said his country would continue the joint cooperation projects, “We shall carry on with our efforts for the Regional Arts School which was born as the result of common interests and political will to commence its activities”.

The Regional Arts School is to be built in Jamaica.

According to the Cuban president, his government is also committed to the advancement of the Centre for the Stimulation of Development of Children, Adolescents and Young People with Special Education Needs in Guyana.
 
Díaz-Canel said his country was undertaking all these things in the midst of economic difficulties and enormous financial tensions.

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