The First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, participated for the first time this Friday in the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, after Cuba’s Observer status was approved last December 11.

Speaking via videoconference from the Red Hall of the Palace of the Revolution at the meeting that brings together the heads of state of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Cuban leader said that “economic, trade, financial and cooperation relations with the member states of the Union are mutually beneficial and “we are ready to collaborate in all the priorities of the Eurasian Economic Commission for this year.”

Díaz-Canel specified that some thirty joint actions have been defined in priority areas such as economic-commercial; banking-financial; health and biotechnology; energy, geology and mining; agro-industrial; cultural, sports and communications. “In the midst of the adverse global scenario I have described, some nations suffer the additional aggression of blockades and other unilateral coercive measures, all in violation of International Law and the UN Charter,” denounced the Head of State. Díaz-Canel thanked the countries that make up the Eurasian Economic Union for “the permanent rejection of the genocidal policy of the U.S. government, which has intensified to unprecedented levels, even in the exceptional conditions of the pandemic.”

Under that brutal harassment, he said, we have managed to confront COVID-19 and show encouraging results, and “that is due in the first place, to the firm determination of our people to defend the political system elected by the majority, which can be summarized in a set of social policies that prioritize the human being above any other good.”

Díaz-Canel expressed “Cuba’s willingness to establish effective cooperation with the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, based on the exchange of experiences between experts from our countries, medical cooperation and collaboration with our vaccine candidates.” Likewise, we declare ourselves ready, he said, to begin the process of insertion into the common market of medicines, devices and medical technology, the creation of which is endorsed in the Treaty of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The Head of State reiterated Cuba’s interest in achieving greater participation of businessmen from the member countries of the Council in foreign investment projects on the island, under the protection of modern and attractive legislation and the facilities provided by the Mariel Special Development Zone. He also spoke of “establishing the bases for collaboration between the Development Bank of the Eurasian Economic Union and the banking system of the Republic of Cuba.”

By tradition, by vocation and by the very urgency of the complex times we live in, “Cuba is firmly committed to solidarity, cooperation and integration, to strengthen ties in areas of mutual interest,” said the Caribbean President, who was accompanied in the videoconference by Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas Ruíz, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment,

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, and the director general of Bilateral Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, Emilio Lozada García. Cuba is the only Latin American country that participates in this economic integration mechanism.

Uzbekistan and Moldova are also observers, although the latter did not participate in this meeting of the Supreme Council. With information from Presidency Cuba