New York, September 25 (RHC)--The international health cooperation that Cuba has provided over the past 60 years has benefited millions of people in 164 countries, said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

The island's top diplomat made the statement at the launching in New York of a special issue of MEDICC Review, an international journal of Cuban health and medicine.  The issue is entitled Global South Contributions to Universal Health: The Case of Cuba.

In his remarks, Rodriguez said that the island’s international assistance in the health sector is an effort that clearly follows the pattern of South-South cooperation that the United Nations has been promoting since the 1970s.

He added that despite efforts to discredit this contribution and the slanderous accusations against it, it is a cooperation praised and recognized by the international community, and It is appreciated by those who have benefited and enjoyed its valuable impact.

The Cuban foreign minister recalled that we live in a world that spends incalculable resources on developing weapons, promoting wars and encouraging consumption patterns for the few who are depleting life on Earth, and stressed that with a fraction of those resources, with a little less greed and a little solidarity, the health problems that are condemning important parts of the world's population could be solved.

"Learning how to do it is very important. It will require creativity and humility. But the essential thing is to mobilize the moral will that can lead to political action," he said.