Cuba to attend ALBA-TCP Summit on COVID-19 Pandemic

Cuba Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, will attend today the summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) focused on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the joint meeting of the 20th Political Council and the 10th Economic Council of the organization, which will meet virtually, he will be accompanied by Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment.

The Cuban Foreign Mnistry reported that the event will begin at 2pm local time and will be broadcast live on its Facebook account and YouTube channel.

The main goal of the participants is to seek relief for the economic and social effects of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting is part of an agreement adopted during the High Level Conference on Economy, Finance and Trade within the framework of Covid-19, held last June 10.

Both ministerial councils will evaluate the proposals made by the ALBA-TCP countries and the special guests during the aforementioned conference, in order to assess the ways of implementation of the initiatives.

On that occasion, President Miguel Diaz-Canel reaffirmed Cuba’s willingness to cooperate with the countries of the Alliance to overcome together the new
challenges.

Venezuela and Cuba are founding members of ALBA-TCP that also include Nicaragua, Dominica, Granada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Created on December 14, 2004, the Alliance has a Political Council made up by the foreign ministers of member countries, whose main function is to advise the Presidential Council, to which all the leaders belong and which is the highest instance of deliberation, decision and political orientation.

The Economic Council is made up of ministers appointed by each member country from the industries, economy, finance, trade, planning and development sectors.

The latter constitutes an instance of coordination of strategies, policies and projects for the productive, agri-food, industrial, energy, commercial, financial and technological complementation of the Member States.