2023-09-14 23:08:00
Cabañas Rodríguez directs the International Policy Research Center. Photo: X@JoseRCabanas.
Diplomat José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, who in 2015 became Cuba’s first ambassador to the United States in more than 50 years, said that the G77+ China summit that will take place this Friday and Saturday in Havana “can mean a point of inflection” to promote “greater solidarity from the Global South” on issues such as climate change, economic relations with the North and scientific cooperation.
An official with 37 years of experience in the foreign service, he headed the island’s delegation in Washington after the thaw of ties fostered by then-presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, with a previous stint as ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, among other destinations.
With this curriculum you know in detail some of the consensuses that have already been reached among the 134 countries that are part of the group, which have been negotiating a final declaration that must be ratified by the heads of the delegations before being presented next Saturday, at the last day of the summit, which will take place at the Convention Palace in the Cuban capital.
“Either we all act, or there will be no world in the way we know it today. And in this effort collaboration and solidarity must prevail, not invasions or swollen military budgets” José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez
Among the points already agreed upon that will appear in that text “is the description made of the main problems faced by an underdeveloped world that is trying to recover from the terrible impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he anticipated in statements to Télam.
“Situation to which are added the consequences of previous pandemics, let’s say economic ones, ranging from external debt, lack of financing for development, the effect of unilateral coercive measures and human displacement that removes an essential resource from said countries. for development,” he said.
Climate change will also be an axis of the declaration, since industrialized countries are those that produce the most carbon dioxide, but the greatest tragedies linked to global warming occur in developing nations.
Photo: X@cubag77
“The G77+China are saying in their draft resolution that issues such as climate change not only exist, but must be everyone’s concern. There is a call for a common approach to these challenges, without egos or pretensions of superiority,” he said. Rodríguez Cabins.
“Either we all act, or there will be no world in the way we know it today. And in this effort collaboration and solidarity must prevail, not invasions or swollen military budgets,” he noted.
The diplomat, who today directs the International Policy Research Center, indicated that another consensus is “the importance that all members of the group attach to the role that science, technology and innovation can play in achieving a profound qualitative leap in the level of economic development for those countries that perhaps have the greatest natural resources in the world, but not the main universities, research centers, or high-tech companies.
At the Havana Convention Palace, which will host the G-77 and China Summit, an exhibition was inaugurated on the progress and achievements of #Cuba ???????? in the fields of science, technology and innovation.#CubaG77 pic.twitter.com/nhyR1U5LSb
— Cuba Presidency | G-77 and China (@cubag77) September 14, 2023
The importance of this issue is evident in that the summit of the group, which represents 80% of the world’s population and which is considered due to its specific weight as the largest intergovernmental organization within the UN, will be held under the motto “Current challenges of development: role of science, technology and innovation”.
The ambassador also highlighted that consensus is equally important on what will not be expressed in the final declaration which, as he announced, will not make explicit mention of the war in Ukraine, an issue that has been going through the documents and debates of the vast majority of international forums in the last 18 months.
“These 134 countries do not consider, as NATO or the European Union do, that the dangers of this world are related to supposed evil expansions of countries like Russia or China,” he commented.
Climate change will be one of the axes of the declaration, since industrialized countries are the ones that produce the most carbon dioxide, but the greatest tragedies linked to global warming occur in developing nations.
And he added: “It is not endorsed, but questioned, an order, rather a global disorder that has been marked by the guidelines of the so-called West, which has imposed its models of political order, the associated principles, but essentially an imbalance to favor of a few.”
In summary, the diplomat considered that the summit in Havana will mark “a milestone in recent history” and will promote South-South cooperation: “I have no doubt that there will be greater solidarity from the Global South, because there is already a new solidarity among the dispossessed,” he noted.
“There are great challenges before us, but we have no doubt that the Havana meeting can mean a turning point in the treatment of these issues,” he commented.
Foto: @BrunoRguezP
Cabañas Rodríguez, who has a doctorate in Sciences from the University of Havana and professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations, also asked to “put into perspective” the G77 summit in Havana regarding the events that took place immediately before and those that will occur. subsequently.
Among the previous events, he referred to “a Covid-19 pandemic where the logic of ‘every man for himself’ and, one could add, ‘with his own resources’ basically prevailed.”
“Beyond a few donations of vaccines, scarce funds and medical materials, the truth is that it was evident, even in the so-called developed world, that Humanity as a whole is not prepared to face this type of events. The large corporations that “profit from human health have become exponentially richer, despite the serious loss of human life. Can we say that this scheme works?” he questioned and, on the contrary, highlighted Cuba’s decision to send experts “to more than 40 nations” during the pandemic.
Cabañas Rodríguez mentioned last week’s G20 summit in India in which there were “marked absences”, in reference to the presidents of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Putin, respectively, and highlighted that the new president of the forum “is the “Brazil of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, not the Brazil of Jair Bolsonaro”
“We even had a presence in overseas (colonial) territories of several European metropolises, which did not even have time, or political decision, to look beyond their borders. But for Cuba the entire Caribbean is its most immediate environment,” he noted.
Among the previous events that can reconfigure the geopolitical map, he also referred to the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, in which it was decided to accept new member states, including Argentina, and there was talk of international trade in currencies other than the dollar. .
In addition, he mentioned last week’s G20 summit in India in which there were “marked absences”, in reference to the presidents of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Putin, respectively, and highlighted that the new president of the forum “is the “Brazil of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, not the Brazil of Jair Bolsonaro.”
Regarding the events after the meeting in the Cuban capital, he highlighted that at the end of next month “there will be a great event in China to mark the 10 years of the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative”, the new La Seda, “which has turned out to be a new way of convening countries for economic alliances, which is not based on political impositions, which works with countries that have a multiplicity of ideological tendencies.”
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