Cuba Hails Strong Global Support at UN Debate on Ending U.S. Blockade

Oct 29, 2025 at 03:26 PM

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Lanka Leader

Cuba has reported overwhelming international backing during the first day of debate at the United Nations General Assembly on the annual resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against the island. The vote on the resolution is scheduled for tomorrow.

Speaking after the session, Cuban officials described the discussion as “rich and substantive,” noting that 29 countries, including representatives of seven regional and political groups—the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the African Group, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and China, the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—took part in the debate.

According to Havana, the interventions were nearly unanimous in condemning the U.S. blockade, calling for its immediate and unconditional lifting, and demanding Cuba’s removal from Washington’s “spurious and unilateral list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.” Cuban officials said that the discussion demonstrated “the United States’ isolation within the international community and the world’s rejection of its hostile and aggressive policy toward Cuba.”

Cuba criticized the intervention of the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, describing it as “disrespectful, mendacious, and arrogant.” Officials noted that the Cuban Foreign Minister exercised procedural rights under the UN General Assembly rules to respond formally to the remarks, emphasizing that the U.S. representative “failed to show the decorum expected in the UN’s highest deliberative forum.”

Despite what Cuba described as “intimidating and deceptive pressure” by U.S. diplomats on member states, including direct involvement by senior U.S. officials, Cuban representatives expressed confidence that the upcoming vote will once again result in an “overwhelming victory for Cuba and for international law.”

“The world knows that the blockade is the main obstacle to Cuba’s development and economic recovery,” the statement read, adding that the Cuban people continue to face its consequences “with creative resistance.”

Cuban officials underscored that this year’s debate also highlighted the country’s role as a nation of peace and solidarity, recognized for hosting the signing of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

The Cuban government said it expects the General Assembly to deliver yet another resounding endorsement of the resolution, marking the 33rd consecutive year that the global community calls for an end to the U.S. blockade.

Full text of the Statement..

Havana, October 28, 2025

And after many of you were, I suppose, at the well-deserved tribute that our people paid to Camilo Cienfuegos, the Lord of the Vanguard. And on the 66th anniversary of his physical disappearance, what better tribute to the Lord of the Vanguard than the rich, substantive debate that took place this morning in the plenary of the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution that Cuba presents annually entitled, as you know, a forceful name from the very title of the resolution: “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”

If you were able to follow the debate, you will have seen that they intervened this morning. The debate continues, the consideration of the issue continues tomorrow when the vote on the resolution will takes place. Today, 29 speakers intervened, from 29 countries, 7 of them representing regional groups or political coalitions.

We are talking about regional or political coordination groups such as the Caribbean Community, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the African Group, political coordination groups as numerous and with such a vocal voice in the activities, in the agenda of the United Nations and international in general as the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and China, the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. A thoroughly compelling and substantive debate, with numerous examples of the application, implementation, and extremely negative impact of the blockade. A debate that demonstrated the United States' isolation within the international community and the isolation of its hostile and aggressive policy toward Cuba.

There wasn't a single intervention, well, there was one, I'm going to talk about it, but today's interventions, 28 interventions were forceful, as I said, calling for the immediate and unconditional lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade. And they all also called for Cuba's removal from the spurious and unilateral list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism. Thus, there was a firm and repeated demand for the immediate and unconditional end to the blockade.

There wasn't a single word—not one word, you couldn't have heard it because there wasn't one—of support for the hostile policy of the United States government against Cuba. Well, there was the unfortunate intervention, I would say, of the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations in his attempt to divert the attention of the General Assembly, which he failed to do. However, it was a mendacious, disrespectful, uncivilized, uncivil, rude, we might even say uncultured, arrogant, and disrespectful speech, directed at the concert of nations represented in the United Nations General Assembly, and at the President of the General Assembly herself, a European woman, a German, who was presiding over the debate. Furthermore, it was slanderous and fallacious regarding the reality of Cuba.

Despite the fact that the United States is well aware that our people are victims of the cruelest, most unjust and prolonged blockade in modern history that any country has suffered.

That speech by the United States representative, as you saw, provoked, forced our Foreign Minister, representing Cuba as head of our delegation, to resort to the rules of the General Assembly and used two articles of those rules, articles 71 and 68, to request a point of order; which, by the way, I don't know if you noticed, threw the United States representative off a bit, who is perhaps very used to addressing the House of Representatives, but seems to be unaware of the rules, the dignity, the respect that must be shown in a great place such as the General Assembly of the United Nations.

It seems Mr. Waltz got his bearings and forgot he was at the United Nations, not the United States House of Representatives. The Permanent Representative of the United States not only lied, substantially deviating from the topic, but also spoke rudely and arrogantly, as I've already mentioned, against the President of the UN General Assembly, against the member states, against the dignity of the United Nations General Assembly, and I reiterate, his lack of culture, his rudeness, and his unacceptable rudeness in that grand and democratic forum were astonishing. Once again, he attempted to justify what the United Nations General Assembly has rejected on 32 previous occasions and will reject again tomorrow: the blockade.

The United States once again presented a repertoire of arguments that had been repeatedly refuted, not only by Cuba, but also, as I mentioned, by the debate that takes place in the United Nations, in other international forums, and particularly in the United Nations General Assembly year after year.

I must reiterate something that our Foreign Ministor already said on October 22nd, here also in statements to the press, and which he has reiterated in recent days, yesterday, today and after this first session of the debate concluded.

I must reiterate that despite the enormous deployment of US diplomats, including the Secretary of State himself and others, and despite the intimidating and deceptive pressures—I emphasize the word, intimidating and deceptive as well—that they have exerted on several countries with the aim of inducing them to change or modify their traditional stance of support for Cuba, we are totally convinced that what the United Nations General Assembly will witness tomorrow, what the world will observe, is once again a resounding and overwhelming endorsement of Cuba, of the lifting of the blockade, of respect for justice, truth, international law and the UN Charter, and an absolute isolation and discrediting of the blockade policy, of that policy of blockade, aggression and hostility of the United States towards Cuba.

The desperate and anxious efforts have revealed a great deal of anxiety, I can confirm this, some of you have noticed it. These efforts from the United States only indicate that they fear the truth, that they know they suffer this complete and total isolation, that they know it is an abuse that must end, and that the Cuban people are right. No one can ignore that the blockade is the main obstacle to the development and economic recovery of our country, and that it is the primary cause of the shortages and hardships experienced by the Cuban people, which we Cubans face every day with creative resistance. Therefore, I invite you again tomorrow to watch the debate that will continue, which will once again be very rich and substantive, which will again very clearly demand the lifting of the blockade, and which will once again achieve a resounding victory for our people, for the Cuban Revolution, whether they like it or not, and for all the dignified governments and peoples of Our America and the world.

It will also be a triumph, of course, primarily of international law, of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, of reason; it will be a triumph of reason, of justice and of truth, and once again, as up to this moment, we will continue to count on the solidarity and support of the world.

I tell you that, in addition to the blockade and the demand for Cuba's removal from the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism, recurring themes in the speeches were the recognition of Cuba as a country of peace, a country that has greatly contributed to the efforts of Our America for peace, the country where the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace was signed, and a country of solidarity. Many delegations from different regions of the world—the Caribbean, Africa, and various international cooperation groups—recognized that Cuba is a country that offers solidarity and does not deserve to suffer the unjust blockade imposed upon it for more than 60 years.

Thank you very much. Follow the debate and voting tomorrow.

(Cubaminrex)