In Paris, Diaz-Canel salutes Fidel Castro’s requests to avoid paying foreign debts

In Paris, Miguel Diaz-Canel revived the late Fidel Castro’s demand to “reform the international financial institutions.” (…) that takes into account the legitimate interests of developing countries”, when speaking at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, which is taking place until Friday in the French capital.

Seated next to event host President Emmanuel Macron The Cuban leader said that “the most disastrous consequences of the current international economic and financial system, deeply unjust, undemocratic, speculative and exclusive, gravitate more strongly to developing countries.” Published the official portal cube.

In the words of Diaz-Canel, “our cities” are “laboratories for colonial recipes and Renewed forms of hegemony that use debt, the current international financial structure and unilateral coercive measures to perpetuate underdevelopment and increase the coffers of the few at the expense of the South.“.

Touch the ruler one of Things that Fidel Castro himself used as a pretext for not paying the regime’s growing foreign debt.

“It is our countries that have seen their foreign debts practically double in the past ten years; He said those who had to spend $379 billion of their reserves to defend their currencies in 2022, nearly double the amount of new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allocated to them.

According to Diaz-Canel,In such unfavorable conditions, the South cannot generate and access the $4.3 trillion per year needed to achieve the SDGs. In the remaining decade of work.

Thus, in addition to criticizing the current “chaos” of the global economy, he also demanded “a rapid and substantial recapitalization of multilateral development banks to improve their lending conditions and meet the financial needs of the South.”

The Cuban ruler concluded his speech by citing passages from one of Fidel Castro’s recent “reflections” on this matter: “Let us not go down in history as leaders who could and could not make a difference in our common destiny. Let us not ignore the warnings; let us not diminish their urgency. Let us act with sense of the presence of endangered species. Let us act with human sense.”

Interviews with Guterres and Lula

Diaz-Canel held meetings with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres; with Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and other UN authorities, And also with Brazil’s ally Lula da Silva.

The meeting between Diaz-Canel and Guterres took place at the Palais Brongniart (the palace of the Paris Stock Exchange), according to the photos published on the official social networking sites of the Cuban presidency.

Diaz-Canel, who attended the financial summit as president of the Group of 77 and China, also met with Lula.

Brotherly meeting with the President of the Republic @employee. We exchanged historical relations between our peoples and countries and the possibility of increasing cooperation in areas of common interest. We have great agreement on current issues on the international agenda. pic.twitter.com/ozrPGkD0MW

– Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez (DiazCanelB) June 22, 2023

via TwitterAnd The Cuban ruler described the dialogue with Lula as fraternal He added, “We exchanged historical relations between our peoples and countries and the possibility of increasing cooperation in areas of common interest. We have great agreement on current issues on the international agenda.”

in the same social network, The Brazilian president highlighted the conversation with Diaz-CanelAccording to him, they dealt with bilateral issues that had been abandoned in recent years.

This meeting is the second meeting between the allied rulers, after Lula assumed the presidency of his country again, in January of this year.

Diaz-Canel continued his tour of Europe in France, which included countries such as Italy and Serbia.

Diaz-Canel’s European trip began with a 40-minute private meeting with Pope Francis last Tuesday during which, apparently, The issue of Cuban political prisoners was not touched uponAt least according to statements by both parties published shortly after.

So close, wrapped in the Cuban flag and the rhythm of the music Opponents of the communist regime chanted slogans against political repression, forced exile and the Vatican’s legitimization of the Diaz-Canel government..

Later, in his summary On an official visit to Serbia, Cuban ruler Miguel Diaz-Canel was full of praise for the authorities of that country and was very optimistic about the future of bilateral relations.