HAVANA. Cuba is an absolutely vital ally for the United Nations, said María Fernanda Espinosa, president of the General Assembly of that multilateral organization, on her arrival in Havana on Wednesday.

The UN needs countries like Cuba since it is one of the great defenders of the multilateral system, added the diplomat, who was received at the third terminal of the José Martí international airport by Anayansi Rodríguez, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs.

Espinosa said she was very happy to be in Havana and said that she has a very complete agenda in which she will see the progress of the island in gender equality and the accompaniment of the UN to the Cuban government for the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Objectives.

We will be learning from Cuban initiatives in the area of South-South cooperation and we also intend to advance a conversation on the urgent need to strengthen the multilateral system, added the President of the most democratic organ of the United Nations system.

A press release from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Espinosa will hold high-level meetings with Cuban government authorities, meet with members of civil society and give a master lecture to students of the Raúl Roa Higher Institute of International Relations.

María Fernanda Espinosa has held the presidency of the UN General Assembly since June 2018. She was the fourth woman to reach that post and the first woman to represent Latin America.

At the time of her election, she was the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, where she was also Minister of Defense and Coordinating Minister of Cultural and Natural Heritage. She is a poet, essayist and graduate in applied linguistics, and later specialized in Anthropology and Amazonian studies in postgraduate and master’s courses.

Cuba in various international forums has called for reform of the United Nations, aimed at achieving a truly democratic and participatory organization, with a transparent and democratized Security Council and a revitalized General Assembly.

Founded on October 14, 1945, the United Nations currently has 193 Member States.

(Source: ACN)