The countries of the South cannot move forward if they continue to carry a debt whose excessive amount hinders their efforts to focus on development, Adiel Guevara, third secretary of the Cuban mission to the organization, said during the forum.

Faced with those challenges, the diplomat rejected implementing unilateral coercive economic measures incompatible with International Law and the United Nations Charter.

“Cuba has been resisting for more than 60 years an economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States, which is the main obstacle to my country’s economic and social development,” he stressed.

The countries of the South need concrete actions, including external financing on favorable terms, development of capacities, and transfer of technologies, he said.

The Cuban representative recalled that global debt reached 11.4 trillion dollars by 2022, in which developing countries are the most affected by hunger, extreme poverty, the effects of climate change, and the consequences of the current international economic and financial order.

In 2022, 25 countries dedicated more than one-fifth of their total revenue to servicing their external public debt.

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