President Diaz-Canel highlights the close relationship between FAO and Cuba. Author: Revolutionary Research
Gratitude, mutual support and joint efforts to move forward on food-related issues were the common themes of Monday afternoon’s dialogue between the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez. with Mario Lubetkin, Deputy Director General and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
This is an opportunity, – the Head of State assessed, – “to express all our gratitude for the joint work that we have been doing for years, and especially at this last stage.” In this sense, he emphasized the organization’s support as a crucial element for the development of Cuba’s Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education Program. In his opinion, FAO is “an active participant in this whole concept.”
It also testifies to the high level of political dialogue between Cuba and FAO, which finds concrete expression in the many “projects and programs that we carry out together.”
Have the conviction, he stressed, that “Cuba can be counted on.” At the same time, he reaffirmed that the work of our country is fully consistent with the work of FAO in the fight to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and that we all contribute both from our territorial spaces, and at the regional and global levels. to the fact that there is less poverty, that there is better food and better culture.
Similarly, the President of Cuba thanked the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for the support given to him during the difficult times that the Cuban people experienced last year, such as the Saratoga hotel accident, the fire at the supertanker base and the passage of Hurricane Yan.
“It is a great pleasure for us to receive him, and he is welcome in our country,” the Cuban President stressed.
Thanking the Cuban dignitary for hosting the meeting, the FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean commented on the importance of working to bring together local strategies that are being implemented in Cuba and how much more can be done in the world related to food security, an issue that is in the center of the international arena, along with the climate, energy and economic crisis.
These are challenges, he stressed, that “do not come from the left or the right and must be faced as such; and in this FAO has a much greater responsibility.”
In his view, both governments and various actors from the private sector, civil society and academia have a role to play in this regard, with FAO becoming the reference point for navigating this new phase.
At the meeting marked by friendly dialogue, the distinguished guest was accompanied by Adoniram Sanchez Perachi, Sub-Regional Coordinator for Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, FAO Representative in Panama and Costa Rica, and Marcelo Rezende, Representative of the organization in Cuba.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla, as well as Foreign Trade and Investment Ministers Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz and Agriculture Minister Ydael Pérez Brito also attended from the Cuban side.
Source: Juventud Rebelde