Havana, September 13 (RHC/Prensa Latina)-- Cuba will defend the principles of self-determination, independence and sovereignty at the 17th Summit of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (NAM), which began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, the 18th, in Venezuela.

The director for Multilateral Affairs and International Law at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Pedro Nuñez Mosquera, said that Cuba will also speak against non-conventional warfare and the current world economic order.

In statements posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, Cubaminrex, Nuñez Mosquera said that at the summit Cuba will push for a condemnation of unilateral coercive measures, specifically Washington’s economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

Mosquera said the Cuban delegation will also denounce Washington's illegal occupation of a portion of Cuban territory in the southeastern province of Guantanamo, where it maintains a U.S. naval base and prison, against the will of the Cuban government and people.

With 120 member states, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries is the second largest international body after the United Nations. Fifty-three of its members are from Africa, 39 from Asia, and 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean. Seventeen other countries participate as observers, as do also 10 organizations.