Speech by member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa, at the general debate of the 4th Conference of Small Island Developing States. Antigua and Barbuda, May 27, 2024
Chairman,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates and guests,
I am honored to attend this historic gathering, on the soil of the sister Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, to which we are bound by enduring ties of friendship.
Since the adoption of the Samoa Pathway ten years ago, new and greater challenges have emerged.
Our nations face an adverse and challenging international economic outlook, characterized by high levels of debt, inflation, food, energy and climate crises, and limited access to financing due to our status as middle-income countries.
They concentrate the greatest losses due to climate change and natural disasters, which generate annual costs equivalent to 8% of our national income.
The persistent development challenges faced by our countries require an adequate provision and mobilization of all the means of implementation, cooperation and solidarity urgently needed to achieve the internationally agreed objectives.
Any such efforts will be limited without a profound and comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture that provides fair treatment to developing countries, both in the decision-making process and in access to financing.
In this effort, we welcome the new program of action that considers the establishment of a specific debt sustainability support facility for Small Island Developing States.
We also reiterate the need to establish a package of measures that go beyond Gross Domestic Product to access concessional financing and to develop trade rules that take into account our special circumstances.
Excellencies:
For our countries, the cost of climate adaptation is between $22 billion and $26 billion annually. In this regard, we support the agreement to double adaptation finance and the timely implementation of the Global Adaptation Goal.
We call for the mobilization of new, additional, predictable and adequate international resources to capitalize the climate change loss and damage fund, ensuring that our priorities and needs are taken into account.
Under this vision, we advocate advancing the process for the establishment of a new quantified global goal for climate finance at COP29.
In this regard, we recognize the relevance of the Bridgetown Initiative.
Excellencies,
We are grateful for the valuable expressions of solidarity from the Small Island Developing States in calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on my country more than 60 years ago by the U.S. government, unprecedentedly tightened in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and rejecting the arbitrary and unjust inclusion of Cuba in the unilateral list of alleged State sponsors of terrorism.
Despite this illegal siege, Cuba has set clear goals in economic and social matters, which are reflected in universal and free access to health and education; a robust system of science, technology and innovation; and an ambitious National Plan to Combat Climate Change.
In keeping with our permanent vocation of solidarity, we reiterate our willingness to make available the 17 cooperation projects promoted by Cuba during its Chairmanship of the G77 and China last year.
Likewise, we support the efforts to establish a Small Island Developing States Center of Excellence in Antigua and Barbuda.
Excellencies,
In order to advance in the exercise of our right to development, which is also our nations' right to exist, compliance with the commitments contemplated in the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement is required. Only in this way will we be able to implement the common roadmap we have set for ourselves, without the permanent threat of disappearance hanging over our dreams.
Thank you very much.
