No right to impose tariffs: Cuba envoy to India blasts Trump's trade policies

Cuba's Ambassador to India, Juan Carlos Marsn Aguilera, has said his country opposes the US policy of imposing tariffs on other nations for political reasons. He also said Cuba maintains cordial ties with the people of the US even as it disagrees with policies from Washington that, he claimed, many Americans themselves do not support.

Speaking during a two-day visit to Odisha on Saturday, Aguilera also spoke about US actions linked to Russia, Cuba's position on imperialism and exploitation, and Havana's ties with India and BRICS. He said Cuba remained grateful for India's moral support and described cooperation within BRICS as important across several fields.

Aguilera said, "We are against this world tariff that has been imposed by this US administration. Nobody has the right to impose these tariffs on other countries for political reasons."

He claimed that the US wants to stop all trade between Russia and the rest of the world, and added, "They don't have the right to do that unilaterally."

His remarks came after the US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which seeks to impose sanctions on Russia's leadership and energy sector, as well as on collaborators with Moscow's defence industry and its so-called "shadow fleet".

The Act authorises President Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on countries buying Russian oil and gas, including China and India. It also gives him wide discretion over implementation, including which countries face tariffs, the rates imposed, and whether sanctions provisions are waived.

The envoy said that though Cuba does not have many natural resources, its real strength lies in its intellectual wealth. "From the days of Fidel Castro, literacy and public learning have been treated as the foundations of the national survival," he said. "It is for this reason that Cuba stands united at home, resistant abroad, and unwilling to live as anyone's dependent."

He added that Cuba was opposed to exploitation, imperialism and the misuse of power, and accused Washington of using force in Venezuela and detaining that country's president to bring Venezuelan oil under its control.

On India, Aguilera said ties between New Delhi and Havana remained intact. "Cuba would stay grateful for India's moral support," he said.

Referring to Cuba's status as a partner country of BRICS, he added, "We have cooperated a lot within this grouping to strengthen cooperation in many fields."