ALBA nations agree to cooperate on food, medicine production
Havana, Dec 14 (EFE).- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Tuesday that the states belonging to the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) will seek to establish a regional cooperative “strategy” to jointly produce food and medicines.
At the close of the 20th ALBA Summit, held in Havana, Diaz-Canel emphasized the key points of the gathering and discussed the common interest in moving forward jointly in the food and pharmaceutical areas.
The ALBA leaders supported the “design of a post-Covid strategy” that focuses on the “biotechnological and economic-productive” industries, with the help of the ALBA bank, to produce “pharmaceuticals and food.”
The approved text resulting from the meeting, the Cuban president said, is “substantive” and takes a stance vis-a-vis “multiple challenges,” adding that “Unity has to be unmovable.”
The final communique from the conference, as Diaz-Canel said, denounced US “imperialism,” Washington’s communications campaigns regarding its “unilateral coercive measures” against several ALBA member states – calling them “lies” and denouncing the US “blockade” of the communist island.
The Cuban leader also emphasized the “readiness” of his country to continue collaborating with other ALBA allies in the area of developing vaccines against the coronavirus.
Just before Diaz-Canel spoke, ALBA executive secretary Sacha Llorenti presented the 2022 post-pandemic working plan developed by the bloc and agreed to at the Havana summit, which includes the creation of an “observatory against interference” and the consolidation of relations between ALBA and other regional organizations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The construction of an economic, financial and monetary plan was also included in the proposal presented by Llorenti.
After Diaz-Canel spoke, the summit participants approved the final communique, and the regional leaders were scheduled to pose for a group photo, visit the Fidel Castro Ruz Center and attend a reception at the Havana Conventions Palace.
Currently, ALBA has 10 members: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela, along with two special invitees – Haiti and Suriname.
NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: Decisions made by the Cuban authorities in recent months have severely reduced staff at EFE’s bureau in Havana, where only two journalists are currently able to carry out their work. EFE hopes to recover its news-reporting capacity on the island in the coming days.
EFE int-lh/eat/bp
