Cuba to Analyze Priorities and Challenges in Foreign Policy in 2019

The Cuban Foreign Ministry will analyze the priorities and challenges in its foreign policy this year, as well as the main achievements made in the international arena in 2018.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Twitter that those issues will be discussed on Monday during the annual review of the sector's work.

Recently, Cuba published a summary of the report on the main results in foreign policy, in which it ratified that it keeps its strong commitment to the defense of peace and multilateralism.

As the most significant achievement, Cuba highlighted the twenty-seventh consecutive victory at the United Nations General Assembly in its demand for the elimination of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for more than half a century.

However, Cuban diplomatic authorities noted that Washington based its foreign policy on Cuba on lies and actions, and imposed measures of backwardness and confrontation with Havana.

Media and political manipulation of the health symptoms reported by US diplomatic officials in Havana was the pretext for the deterioration of bilateral relations, the report says.

The tightening of the blockade continues, with growing effects on the banking-financial system, and the Department of State extended the list of Cuban institutions with which US citizens cannot do direct financial transactions, thus causing additional economic damage, due to its extraterritorial effects, the document adds.

Regarding Cuba's relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, the Foreign Ministry noted President Miguel Diaz-Canel's visits to Venezuela, as well as the visits to Cuba by the heads of State of Bolivia, Panama, El Salvador, Haiti, Suriname and Guyana, and the prime ministers of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Belize, among others.

The report points out that 2018 was a year to strengthen relations with the countries in Asia and Oceania by consolidating political dialogue, economic ties and common support on issues of the international agenda.

The document notes Diaz-Canel's visits to Russia, China, Vietnam, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Lao, while collaboration between Cuba and African countries deepened and diversified.

The text points out that in 2018, relations between Cuba and Africa were characterized by continuity and solidarity and they are still among the priorities in Cuba's foreign policy.

In addition, Cuba sent more medical professionals to several countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East, and said that one of the objectives in 2019 is to strengthen ties with those nations.

The summary explains that Cuba participated the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council with satisfactory results, positive remarks and acknowledgements.