Ivan Ernesto Barreto Lopez is an international relations expert who works in the Asia-Pacific section of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in Havana. He leads delegations and brigades from different countries – including the annual Southern Cross Study Brigade from Australia and New Zealand – and works closely with students who are in Cuba to train as health professionals. He spoke with Red Ant during a recent national speaking tour organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS) and ICAP.

Would you first mind introducing yourself?

My name is Ivan Ernesto Barreto Lopez. I am a graduate of foreign affairs and since 2020 have been working at the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) which is an organisation that promotes solidarity and just causes around the world. We have relations with more than 1,500 organisations and have been conducting public diplomacy to build relations and engagement for solidarity.

What sort of relationship would Cuba like to establish with Australia?  

There are two main focuses in this field. We believe Cuba has much to offer the Australian government in terms of providing medical and educational assistance for vulnerable communities, and among them, aboriginal communities which are one of the most vulnerable demographic sectors in Australia.

As you may know, the Cuban Brigade has been in more than 120 countries around the world for sixty years. Even during the pandemic, we were in more than 40 countries providing medical assistance.

So, we can build this kind of collaboration with Australia, and not only within the territory of Australia. We understand that Australia – in this re-composition of interests worldwide and the international order – is also looking more to its neighbours in the Pacific.

We would like to also encourage triangular cooperation to offer better rates of health and education support and participation in the Pacific. Everyone will benefit from this relationship. There will be mutual benefits not only Cuba, but also Australia from this collaboration with Cuba.

Cuba also has a literacy program in Australia which is an adaptation of the Yes I Can method. We have used this method in more than 40 countries mainly in Latin America, but it has been applied here in Australia with great success. It has not received enough support from the government, but we hope to expand services to more aboriginal communities here.

One of the biggest current events today is the war in Ukraine. In general, what is Cuba’s attitude towards this conflict?

First of all, Cuba has defended all attempts to fulfil peace in the region [and] looked for diplomatic solutions to the conflict. Cuba has never supported the war and we believe a peaceful solution is needed for this conflict happening right now in Eastern Europe.

I also don’t want to only say “the war in Ukraine”, because the war is happening in Russia too. The actors involved in this conflict are also not only Ukraine and Russia.

Cuba understands the interests that are behind the starting of this conflict. We can go back to Maidan in 2014 when the right-wing and neo-fascist groups were associated with the movement to overthrow [Viktor] Yanukovych.

Since then, this conflict has been tangible not only for Ukrainians but also for Russians – including the Russian population in Ukrainian territory – and the rest of the European community. Of course, it has had an impact globally, affecting everyone.

But at the same time, nobody is talking about the 14,000 people who died during the eight years after Maidan. Nobody talks about the Minsk Agreement that was a step towards trying to establish a framework or solution to prevent a conflict.

It is in the interests of the United States and some of the Western powers to increase contradiction with Russia and also try to debilitate its alliance with China. This has encouraged increased polarisation and conflict.

So, we defend the need to establish a peaceful way to end this conflict. Since the very beginning – even before – we were calling attention to the increasing tension in the area and the need to stop the expansion of NATO. But of course, the imperialist, Western powers don’t care about life [and] the ones who are dying in this conflict are the working class.

This conflict has also shown the double standards of Western media and the racism and xenophobia it promotes. We see that there is either no mention in the mainstream media – or if so a distorted version – of what is happening or what has happened in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine or the Sahrawi Republic.

That’s the [general] position of Cuba, but I can’t give you an official statement because I don’t represent the Cuban Government or the Embassy. I’m here as a member of a civil society organisation which one of its main purposes is to promote peace.

There has been a lot of talk about the rise of the multipolar world, does Cuba have an attitude towards that?

This transition to a more multipolar world offers some opportunities mainly for developing countries and also countries like Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Iran and many others that have suffered under sanctions for many years – in the case of Cuba, for more than sixty years.

But there is also a rise of militarism accompanying this transition to a multipolar world. There are rising contradictions among the main powers and of course this increases the threat of war.

That’s why European countries and the United States started this proxy war in Ukraine. That’s why the United States is trying to increase contradictions in Taiwan, North Korea [and] the South China Sea. That’s why, for example, Australia is getting more and more into security alliances with the United States and other Western powers.

And it’s not just AUKUS if we take into account the history of Australia since the end of the Second World War. In the 1950s, the ANZUS Treaty was established and after that SEATO. All of these were supposedly to contain communism and to face the challenges of the communist regimes in the world. After that, it was terrorism – supposedly.

Australia has always been behaving as a puppet of the United States. Right now, even though China has been a major commercial partner of Australia, it still continues to pledge [loyalty] to the interests of the United States.

This represents a threat for the Australian people. In the midst of the pandemic, for example, the resources being given to build nukes could have been provided to vulnerable communities [or] aboriginal communities.

It marks the priorities of the Australian government: they have decided to promote rising militarism, encourage a hostile narrative against China, Russia [and] all threats opposed to the interests of the United States worldwide.

[This is despite] the United States having the highest record of interventions around the world and the highest percentage of military spending – more than the next five major military powers combined. This is also a double standard in how they perceive the world.

So, this transition to a multipolar world definitely represents a challenge, but for countries like Cuba it also represents very good opportunities to establish new collaboration and new economic relations.