Havana 25 November - Cuba and Spain renewed “official contact” on Thursday, some 17 months after the European Union imposed sanctions on the island, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.
“We met at the Spanish embassy ... and we have re-established official contact with the Spanish ambassador in Havana,” Perez Roque said in an impromptu press conference at the foreign ministry, where he was joined by Spanish Ambassador Carlos Alonso Zaldivar.
After the brief remarks, the diplomats went to another room to hold a private meeting.
The meeting marked the first official talks that a high-ranking Cuban government official has had with a diplomat from any EU country since June 2003, when the European bloc slapped diplomatic sanctions on Havana after Cuban courts sentenced three Cubans to death for threatening human life in a boat hi-jacking and sentenced 75 so-called dissidents for being in the pay of the United States.
A month ago, Cuba refused to entry to three parliamentarians - Jorge Moragas, external relations spokesman of Spain's right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP), and Dutch colleagues Boris Dittrich and Kathleen Ferrier - who had openly declared their intention to meet with Cuban dissidents. The MPs travelled to Cuba on tourist visas whereas to meet with dissidents would have required diplomatic visas.
Since 1996, the European Union has had a common policy toward Cuba, conditioning better political ties on political changes in the island's political system.
However, Spain, under its new Socialist government elected last March, has been pushing for dialogue with Havana and a "new type of relationship" with the island in the belief that sanctions have produced only a stalemate.
Spain’s foreign ministry late on Thursday stressed Madrid's desire to see normal relations between the whole of the European Union and Cuba.
“The foreign ministry notes the announcement by the Cuban authorities and signals that its objective is the normalisation of contacts between the Cuban authorities and all the embassies of the European Union, not just specific embassies,” a ministry statement read.
“Spain will continue working with all its EU partners to achieve this normalisation with a view to reaching the objectives fixed by the common (EU) position adopted in 1996,” the ministry added.