Written Answers. - US-Cuba Blockade.
Michael D. Higgins
Ceist:
65
Mr. M. Higgins
asked the
Minister for Foreign Affairs
the initiative Ireland will take on assuming its position on the Security Council to bring an end to the US blockade of Cuba which is in breach of the UN charter and several international agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[27474/00]
The Government is opposed to the US economic embargo imposed on Cuba. We are joined in this opposition by our European Union partners. We want to see this embargo brought to an end. We have regularly supported resolutions in the UN General Assembly calling for the lifting of the embargo, most recently in New York on 9 November, when this year's resolution – co-sponsored by Ireland – was carried by 167 votes in favour to three against, with four abstentions. It is to be hoped that attention will be paid to the overwhelming majority voice of the General Assembly.
Encouragingly, there has in fact been significant recent progress. Last month, the US Senate and House of Representatives both voted to approve measures lifting restrictions on the sale of food and medicines to Cuba, and President Clinton has now signed those measures into law. Although US financial institutions remain pro hibited from extending credits for sales to Cuba, this vote represents the first substantive breach in the principle of the embargo.
The embargo against Cuba is, of course, a unilateral one imposed by the United States. The United Nations itself has not imposed sanctions against Cuba and, therefore, the Security Council does not have a direct role in addressing the matter. Cuba has not itself sought the Council's active involvement. The United States, as a permanent member of the Security Council, holds veto power over decisions of the Council.
The framework for Irish and EU policy towards Cuba is provided by the EU Common Position which has been regularly renewed since its adoption in 1996. This aims to encourage a peaceful transition to democratic pluralism, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It makes clear that while EU member states carry on normal bilateral relations with Cuba across the standard spectrum of exchanges from trade to culture, enhanced EU co-operation with Cuba – in the form, for example, of a formal co-operation agreement of the kind obtaining with other Latin-American countries – is precluded by the non-observance in Cuba of fundamental human rights enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such EU co-operation agreements always involve a mandatory human rights and democracy clause.
However, notwithstanding the absence of an institutionalised co-operation agreement, it is notable that the EU, taken as a whole, has in recent years so developed its relations with Cuba that it is now the island's leading foreign investor, principal trade partner, premier source of tourists, and largest provider of development aid and humanitarian assistance.
Question No. 66 taken with Question No. 62.
