Caribbean leaders to discuss economic issues during Cuba-CARICOM summit

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Jul 6, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will use the December Cuba-CARICOM Summit to discuss ways of strengthening relations, according to an official communiqué issued here.



Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met with regional leaders during their annual summit that ended on Friday.



According to the communiqué issued afterwards, “as Cuba developed its new economic model, the forthcoming Cuba-CARICOM Summit on 8 December 2014 was viewed as presenting an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen economic relations”.



Rodriquez underlined Havana’s “unfailing solidarity and partnership” with CARICOM and expressed his country’s “appreciation for the solidarity…in reaction to the many hostile acts harmful to its economic development such as the US embargo and the extraterritorial application of US laws as well as the CFATF (Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) grey listing of the country.



“Heads of Government condemned these hostile acts and rejected as unfounded and without merit the placing of Cuba, a victim of terrorism, including in Community waters, and which works internationally to fight terrorism, on the US list of sponsors of terrorism,” the communiqué said.



It said that the leaders had reiterated their solidarity with Cuba, “a member of the Caribbean family in good standing and in which all member states have now established diplomatic missions”.



The communiqué said that the regional leaders had expressed their appreciation for the technical assistance and cooperation provided by Cuba in a variety of areas including capacity building, education and health, and looked forward to the December summit.



The United States has maintained a trade an economic embargo against Cuba since 19th October 1960, nearly two years after Fidel Castro deposed the Batista regime.



The embargo was extended on February 7, 1962 to include all exports to Cuba. The embargo is enforced mainly with six statutes.



The United States has consistently voted against United Nations resolutions calling for an end to the embargo.



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