|
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, June 9
(Reuters) - Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, the highest-ranking European
Union official to visit Cuba in recent years, pledged on Tuesday to help the
communist-run island integrate more into the international community.
``We want, and we promise, to see and help Cuba insert itself ever more
strongly in the international community,'' he said during a ceremony at Cuba's
Foreign Ministry on the first full day of his trip.
Dini gave no details, but added that he had begun ``very serious
conversations'' with Cuban officials on both bilateral affairs and the island's
relations with the rest of the world.
The Italian minister is the latest in a series of high- profile official and
business visitors to Cuba since Pope John Paul's ground-breaking visit in
January.
While seeking to solidify Italy's already close tourism and business links
with Cuba, Dini is also under pressure -- like other recent visitors from the
West -- to press President Fidel Castro's government on human rights and
political reform.
The European Union adopted a Common Position on Cuba in 1996 which links the
possibility of an EU cooperation accord with the island to a call for
improvements to human rights and changes in Castro's one-party socialist system.
Dini was speaking at a joint ceremony with Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto
Robaina to sign an accord on penal issues that would allow Italian prisoners in
Cuba to serve sentences in their home country, and vice-versa.
Dini said Cuba and Italy hoped to deepen their already ``intense relations''
and praised the penal agreement as having ``a great political and social
significance.''
Robaina expressed satisfaction at Dini's visit and said both countries
should strengthen their relationship with concrete action.
Italy is one of Cuba's leading trade partners, with about $200 million worth
of bilateral trade last year and considerable investment by Italian firms in the
island's opening to foreign capital, according to Cuban officials.
Some 200,000 Italians visited Cuba last year, making them the largest group
of foreigners to visit the island.
Dini, who arrived late on Monday in Havana and was due to staying until
Wednesday, was scheduled to hold talks with Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage and
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon later on Tuesday, and possibly also
meet Castro.
His visit follows an April trip by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien --
who was also heeding the pontiff's call ``for the world to open up to Cuba.''
Critics of Castro, 71, say that while foreign countries appear to be heeding
the urging not to isolate Cuba, the Cuban leader has shown little sign of
fulfilling the second part of his appeal -- for Cuba in turn to open up to the
world.
17:25 06-09-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |