Bruno Rodriguez: Cuba Will Not Return to OAS

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, when opening the extraordinary session of the ALBA’s Political Council VIII meeting, reiterated that Cuba will not return to the OAS, nor cares to have any relationship with that organization that has served for purposes of domination, occupation and aggression, by the United States as a platform to attack and plunder Latin America and the Caribbean.  The Political Council of the ALBA will discuss institutional issues related to the procedures of the Alliance, among other topics.

Foreign Ministers and senior officials from the eight countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) analyze on Wednesday in Havana the actions to implement the agreements of the summit celebrated 10 days ago in Venezuela.

Representatives form Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela participate in the Political Council of the bloc, founded in December 2004.

In the Occidental Miramar Hotel, were the forum takes place, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, invited those present to establish practical measures for an efficient and immediate implementation of issues like economic agreements, regional cooperation and the role of social movements in the regional process of change.

The ALBA Summit that took place on February 4 and 5 ended in Caracas with the commitment of member nations to promote an economic and productive union.

They also set through several documents their common positions in rejection of the economic, trade and financial blockade against Cuba and the British occupation of the Falkland Islands also known as Malvinas which belong to Argentina, and a plan to continued support for Haiti, among other priorities of the block.

According to Rodriguez, the Political Council of the ALBA also discusses institutional issues related to the procedures of the Alliance.

The first item of the meeting’s agenda has to do with the coordination of positions on the celebration in April of the Sixth Summit of the Americas, scheduled in Colombia.

Havana expressed its willingness to participate if it receives an invitation to do so.

Answering a question from the Colombian government, we have been declared that in case of being invited, Cuba will attend from their positions of truthfulness and its traditional foreign policy principles, and would do it with respect, Foreign Minister Rodriguez said.

At the same time, he confirmed the island’s lack of interest in rejoining the Organization of American States (OAS), an entity considered a platform used by the U.S. government for its claims for regional domination.

Rodriguez said that we reiterate that Cuba will not return to the OAS, nor cares to have any relationship with that organization that has served for purposes of domination, occupation and aggression, by the United States as a platform to attack and plunder Latin America and the Caribbean.

For Rodriguez, any hemispheric meeting should have priority issues on its agenda for Latin American and Caribbean countries. (Taken from PL).