As for tourist development in our region Cuba is not, and will not be, a competitor but a close partner and collaborator. We are deeply appreciative of the Caribbean states for their support which has made possible our participation, as observers, in the forthcoming negotiations for a new agreement on the Lome Convention. We will always give a priority to the interests of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries signatories to that Convention. Unity is the only real force available to the Caribbean region. Only if united we will be able to defend ourselves as a region and expand that unity to Central America, South America, Africa and the peoples of other continents.
Caribbean unity is also a blunt refusal to any attempt at division.
The Third World nations are our allies, particularly the Non-Aligned Movement member countries. Those who were yesterday discovered, fragmented, conquered and turned into colonies have today the possibility to act as a majority force in the different fora where the 21st century world is being decided. The Caribbean region should be represented at the UN Security Council as the region deserves for its prestige, its history and its political capability, as it should also be present at the Human Rights Commission and in every forum where battles are being waged for the peoples right to life and well-being. The future is in our hands. What we are asking for, and should definitely fight for, is for the inevitable globalization taking place today according to the laws of history to be the globalization of fraternity and cooperation among all peoples, of sustainable development and a fair distribution and rational use of the abundant material and spiritual riches that man can create with his hands and mind, as an indispensable premise for the inescapably common homeland of a humanity that can, and should, endure.