BASIC FACTS

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea. Since 1965, the Communist Party of Cuba has governed the state, which played a significant role in international events during the Cold War. Cuba is a socialist republic that gained its independence in 1902.

Capital: Havana

According to the IAEA, Cuba began constructing two reactors for a nuclear power plant in the early 1980s, but halted construction in 1992 due to lack of funding. The reactors were never completed, but Cuba remains open to the possibility of developing a nuclear energy program in the future.

According to the United States Library of Congress archives, the United States Office of the Historian, and images taken by United States U-2 planes, in 1962 the Soviet Union deployed medium-range ballistic missiles in San Cristobal and Sagua la Grande, Cuba. Upon discovering some of the weapons deployed in Cuba, the United States issued a naval blockade that was later lifted upon the Soviet Union’s removal of the weapons.

TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• • • • • Member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1957
        • Member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) since 1961
        • Acceded to the 1925 Geneva Protocol in 1966
        • Acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1984
        • Signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972
          • Ratified in 1976
        • Signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993
          • Ratified in 1997
        • Signed the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1981
          • Ratified in 1987
        • Acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2016
        • Signed the Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) in 1977
          • Ratified in 1978
        • Acceded to the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT) in 2009
        • Acceded to the Outer Space Treaty in 1977
        • Acceded to the Sea-bed Treaty in 1977
        • Signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1995
          • Ratified in 2002
        • Acceded to the Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 2002
        • Signed the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017
          • Ratified in 2018

REGIONAL GROUPS

• • • • • Member of the Latin America Group
        • Member of the G-77
        • Member of the G-21
        • Member of the Organization of American States (OAS)

RECENT REPRESENTATION IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• • • • • Hosted CELAC Summit II in 2014

LINKS

UN State Summary

Ratification of Treaties & Membership in International Organizations Related to Disarmament