Participating virtually in the May 27 meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez both emphasized the potential that cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) represents for their nations and others determined not to go down with the imploding Transatlantic financial system. The Eurasian Economic Union is an international organization for regional economic integration, comprised of five member nations: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
As Rodriguez put it, the EAEU offers the possibility of “healthy” cooperation, not only among member nations but with nations from many other regions of the world. Therefore, the correct path, she said, is for those nations to pursue dialogue and relations of understanding with the EAEU. Quoting President Nicolas Maduro, she said that the EAEU “has created new paths for economic cooperation and integration among nations of the world"—in stark contrast to the brutal economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Venezuela in what Rodriguez described as “instruments of war” designed to “economically asphyxiate the country.”
Díaz-Canel made a similar point, emphasizing that Western sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus have exacerbated the regional and international situation and made more difficult “the possibilities of development for our nations.” The increased costs of food and fuel directly impact Cuba, he said, exacerbated by the effects of the economic and trade blockade imposed by the U.S. [60 years ago] “which creates enormous challenges for governmental functioning and the development of our economic and social model.”
