Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel described as a transcendental event the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America-Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), whose 18th anniversary is being commemorated today.

Havana, Cuba.- In his Twitter account, the President recalled that this bloc was an integrationist dream of the top leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, respectively.

He also welcomed the heads of state and government of the member countries, who will meet this Wednesday in this capital at the 22nd Summit of the Alliance, and in this regard, he pointed out that "We will continue to demonstrate that cooperation and solidarity are our paths."

In another tweet, the president recalls the words of the historic leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro when he said: "I want the concept of homeland to have greater scope, that when we say homeland we are referring to great America made up of our small homelands."

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the National Assembly of the People's Power will hold an extraordinary session in the capital’s Palacio de las Convenciones, convened by the Council of State.

ALBA-TCP was created on December 14, 2004, through an agreement signed in Havana between the then presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and Cuba, Fidel Castro, as a response to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), promoted by the United States and finally rejected by Latin America in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2005.

Since its founding and to date, it has maintained solidarity, complementarity, justice, and cooperation as fundamental principles of its action and relations between member states.

The political coordination mechanism is made up of ten countries: Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Cuba. (PL)