Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement during a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cuba Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Moscow, June 12, 2024

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are pleased to welcome Foreign Minister of Cuba Bruno Rodriguez Parrillo and his delegation to Moscow.

We have held fulfilling talks that covered all areas of interaction, primarily, our efforts to implement the agreements reached by the presidents of Russia and Cuba. Last time they met was in connection with the events held in Moscow on May 8. It was a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, in which Cuba is an observer. On May 9, our respective presidents attended the Victory Day parade.

We would like to thank our Cuban friends for cooperating with us on economic matters, for preserving historical memory and preventing the revival of Nazism on our planet. Unfortunately, the threat of such a scenario exists in connection with the United States and its European allies trying hard to foment nationalist, ultra-radical and outright neo-Nazi sentiments to wage war against the Russian Federation in Ukraine and a number of EU countries which, according to Brussels, are “model democracies.”

Yesterday, my friend Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and I participated in the BRICS Plus events held in Nizhny Novgorod. We are grateful to our Cuban partners for joining in this work and for the constructive contribution made by the Cuban delegation.

Today, we focused on implementing the agreements reached by our respective presidents which cover deepening the political dialogue and expanding ties in trade, economic, investment, cultural, humanitarian and other spheres.

At this point, we focus on supporting the Intergovernmental Russian-Cuban Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation which deals with joint priority projects based on a recently developed full-fledged contractual and legal framework for practical cooperation that is designed to build up support and to promote sustainable development of the Cuban economy.

The co-chair of the intergovernmental commission from the Cuban side, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba Ricardo Cabrisas, is in Moscow now. He and his co-chair, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government Dmitry Chernyshenko, are scrutinising all aspects of ongoing work. Without a doubt, these systematic steps, which are important in the medium and long term, will be complemented by continued provision of humanitarian aid to our Cuban friends, including in connection with the natural disasters, the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and devastating consequences of the unlawful embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba in defiance of the stance adopted by almost all members of the international community.

We will continue to work hand-in-hand to form a fair and polycentric international order based on the generally accepted principles of international law, primarily, the principles of the UN Charter about the sovereign equality of states and the unacceptability of interfering in their domestic affairs. We use these positions to make sure neo-colonial practices remain a thing of the past.

We have agreed to improve foreign policy coordination, including within the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter which was created five years ago, which is particularly important in the context of exacerbating confrontation in international affairs and aggravated external threats to the security of our respective countries.

Russia has reaffirmed its commitment to continue to support Havana’s reasonable demands for Washington to immediately lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba. We advocate removing Cuba from the US list of states sponsors of terrorism. It is absolutely untenable for a country such as the United States and its satellites to put Cuba on such a list at a time where it itself is trying to maintain its slipping hegemony in international affairs by using outright terror and economic, financial and diplomatic terrorism, along with direct financing and supporting the terrorist attacks committed by the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev against civilians within Russia’s borders.

Our further steps include increasing our coordination on Latin America and the Caribbean matters. We have a stake in promoting relations with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) and the Association of Caribbean States. Cuba is advocating the development of practical cooperation with the Russian Federation in all of these associations. We are grateful to our Cuban friends for supporting this positive process.  

In turn, we are doing our best to help bring Cuba and other Latin American countries, including ALBA members, closer to the Eurasian Economic Community, where Cuba is an observer and can contribute to strengthening the relations of our integration structures with other Latin American and Caribbean countries. We covered this in detail today as well.

We are grateful to our Cuban friends for their principled position regarding the situation around Ukraine. From the very beginning, Havana provided absolutely correct and true reasons for what was happening and what was plotted by the West for many years. We are grateful to our Cuban friends for their objective and consistent stance that they have been promoting at various forums, including within the Non-Aligned Movement.

I think today’s meeting was held at an appropriate time. Once again, I’m grateful to my friend Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.