Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso, permanent representative of Cuba before the multilateral organization, recalled that Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 based on their geopolitical objectives with a high cost in human lives.

The United States and some allies use force, invade sovereign states to provoke regime changes, intervene in the internal affairs of other nations and are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, which they call “collateral damage,” the Cuban diplomat pointed out.

He explained how on this occasion the American determination to continue the progressive expansion of NATO toward Russia’s borders led to a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could be avoided.

In his speech on Tuesday at the special emergency session of the General Assembly, the island’s representative specified it was a mistake to ignore Moscow’s well-founded demands for security guarantees for decades.

“It is not possible to achieve peace by surrounding or cornering the states,” Pedroso asserted.

The diplomat reiterated Cuba advocates a “serious, constructive and realistic diplomatic solution to the current crisis in Europe,” to guarantee security and sovereignty for all, as well as regional and international peace and stability.

In this sense, he stressed the Caribbean nation welcomes the start of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine as “the only way to resolve the conflict.”

ef/car/avr