For Cuba, it is an honor to assume the presidency of the Committee, which she will hold until next December, the diplomat, accredited as her country’s ambassador to Uruguay and to the Association, whose headquarters are in this capital, told Prensa Latina.
It is going to be a period of great activity and we have all the will and commitment to develop this task accordingly, he noted.
It will be with a constructive vision, taking into account the existing asymmetries and the countries with less relative economic development, he added.
He added that among the objectives that the representation of the Caribbean country will have will be to make the group more visible from a communication point of view.
Aladi is the largest Latin American integration group. Its members are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, in which more than 510 million inhabitants are represented.
The Treaty of Montevideo, of 1980, is its global constitutive and regulatory legal framework.
The principles of pluralism prevail in political and economic matters, progressive convergence of partial actions towards the formation of a Latin American common market.
Also flexibility, differential treatments based on the level of development of the member countries; and multiplicity in the forms of concertation of commercial instruments.
Cuba has been a member of the Association since 1999 and by assuming the pro tempore presidency we will commemorate 25 years of Cuban membership, the ambassador said.
Zulan Popa defined Cuba’s participation as active and recalled that on other occasions he chaired the Committee of Representatives.
He highlighted the holding last November of the tenth edition of the Expo Aladi 2023 Macro Business Roundtable, in Havana.
He described this event as successful, which, he stressed, took place in person and despite the difficult economic situation in his country, surrounded economically, commercially and financially by the United States government.
We have every will for the presidency to support, coordinate and execute the necessary actions for the work of Aladi and increase that integration between our countries that is so necessary today, he stated.
He spoke out for the work articulated with the Aladi Secretariat and advancing issues such as the implementation of the SMEs Latinas Grandes Negocios platform, which offers tools designed for small and medium-sized businesses in the region.
Popa underlined the integrationist approach of the Association which, he said, has avoided excluding or sanctioning countries for political or other reasons. “Its purpose is to integrate, not exclude.”
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