Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, affirmed on Friday that his country will continue to commit to maintaining ties with the European Union based on equality, reciprocity, and mutual respect.
On the social media platform X, the foreign minister defended Cuba’s position in favor of implementing the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with the European Union, agreed upon in 2016 and put into force in 2017, and emphasized that the mechanism preserves equity in addressing issues of common interest and differences.
Referring to a new resolution against Havana approved this Thursday in the European Parliament, the top Cuban diplomat commented that right-wing political forces in that legislative body prefer to join the US narrative designed to justify the energy blockade, the extreme economic war, and the White House’s military threat against the Cuban people.
They don’t even dare to invoke European sovereignty, jurisdiction, and interests in the face of US interference and pressure against their companies and citizens.
According to the foreign minister, this omission violates both EU and national laws and regulations, in particular Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96 of 22 November 1996, which protects against the effects of the extraterritorial application of legislation adopted by a third country and actions based on or derived from it.
This doesn’t surprise us, commented Bruno Rodríguez, and he recalled “the silence and complicity of these same groups in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
In a press release published this Thursday, the Cuban Embassy in Belgium stated that the resolution constitutes yet another exercise in political manipulation, double standards, and subordination to the most extremist and hostile political agendas of the United States against the island.
It denounced the fact that the approved text insists on requesting the suspension of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) between Cuba and the European Union, ignoring the legal nature of said instrument, as well as the institutional competencies within the European Union itself.
According to the statement, the agreement is political, comprehensive, and bilateral, encompassing the areas of political dialogue and cooperation, and governing relations between Cuba and the European Union and its Member States, based on principles of sovereign equality, reciprocity and mutual respect.
IMAGE CREDIT: ACN | Taken from X @BrunoRguezP
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]
