Raúl Castro in New York City for U.N. summit (Update)
Raúl Castro Ruz arrived in New York’s Kennedy Airport at noon Thursday (Sept. 24), to participate in several activities of the United Nations Organization, the Prensa Latina agency reported.
Descending from a Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin 96-300, he was met by Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez, chief Cuban delegate to the United Nations, José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, Cuban ambassador to the United States, and other Cuban diplomats.
Castro will attend the summit (Sept. 25-27) that will consider the Agenda of Sustainable Development Post-2015 and will mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.
On Friday, he will be present at the General Assembly hall to hear an address by Pope Francis, who visited Cuba earlier this week.
The summit will deal with subjects such as ending poverty; fostering economic, social and technological progress; coping with environmental challenges; strengthening universal peace, and promoting global cooperation.
Castro will speak to the General Assembly on Monday afternoon, most likely to expound the need for the United States to end its trade blockade on his island nation.
President Obama is scheduled to address the General Assembly a few hours before Castro. So are the presidents of China, Russia, Iran and France.
Later in the week, Castro will attend “a conference on the empowering and equality of women in the tradition of the world conference on the subject held in Beijing [in 1995],” Radio Rebelde says. The conference appears to be WomanCon, set for Tuesday (Sept. 29) in New York City.
Prensa Latina says that Castro “will develop an intense bilateral agenda that includes meetings with several heads of state, U.S. legislators, Cubans living in the U.S., political personalities and business people.”
Indeed, Castro met for an hour at the Cuban mission with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (shown in photo at top from the Governor’s office), who in April headed a trade mission to Cuba. According to a Cuomo spokeswoman, the delegations discussed economic development and had follow-up discussion about the governor’s trip to Havana.
Castro also plans to meet with Democratic lawmakers Barbara Lee of California, James McGovern of Massachusetts, Charles Rangel, Nydia Velásquez and Gregory Meeks, the last three of New York.
The delegation accompanying Castro includes Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno Fernández.
Moreno was Cuba’s permanent representative from 2009 to 2012. He was deputy representative of Cuba to the Security Council from 1990 to 1991; minister counselor of the Cuban mission from 1992 to 1995; and secretary of the Cuban mission to U.N. headquarters in Geneva from 1964 to 1968.
Reyes, who welcomed Castro at the airport, has been Cuba’s chief envoy to the U.N. since 2013. Until his latest appointment, he was Cuba’s permanent representative to the U.N. headquarters at Geneva since 2009, having held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1990. He was first secretary at Cuba’s mission to the U.N. in New York between 1996 and 1999; from 1993 to 1995, he was third secretary.
During Castro’s stay in New York, it is expected that diplomatic relations will be established between Cuba and the Marshall Islands and Palau, nations that in the past consistently opposed the lifting of the U.S. blockade against the island.
