Ibero-America Favors Multilateralism against COVID-19

Havana, April 21 (ACN) Several heads of state attending the 27th Ibero-American Summit stressed in their speeches the need to consolidate multilateralism, regional integration and boost South -South cooperation to face the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the virtual event hosted d by Andora, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stressed his country’s scientists and innovators who have developed five COVID-19 candidate vaccines despite the strengthening US economic, commercial and financial blockade of the island nation.

Diaz-Canel also reiterated the solidarity practice by Cuban health worker who have assisted several nations of the world against the pandemic.

Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei called for increasing South-South cooperation to cushion the impact of the pandemic and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Dominican Republic’s Luis Abinader stressed the significance of multilateralism to fight the world epidemic and climate emergency; he called for unity and strengthened efforts for regional integration.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez said that beyond our differences and diverse ideologies, our region can dream a better future. Fernandez and his Bolivian counterpart Luis Arce stressed the need to eliminate inequality in healthcare issues to recover national and regional economies.

The virtual summit, which counts on 29 observers from different international organizations, will adopt the Andorra Commitment on Innovation for Sustainable Development, an Action Program and different Ad-Hoc communiqués. The Dominican Republic will be the host of the next Summit in 2022.