Cuba and the United States Shape New Cooperation Agreements

HAVANA, Cuba, May 29 (acn) The governments of Cuba and the United States negotiate new cooperation agreements in areas of mutual interest, ranging from health to confronting illegal acts, announced Josefina Vidal, director general of the United States Department of the island's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a session of the second day of the 34th Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the diplomat noted that these agreements could be signed in the coming months, reported Prensa Latina.
The official specified that the possible cooperation tools would reach the areas of health, the fight against drugs, search and rescue, oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida, and meteorology.
She also cited seismic monitoring, plant and animal health and terrestrial protected areas.
In addition, we are working on new high-level visits between the two countries, in order to promote dialogue on these issues, she stated.
She commented about the plans of Havana and Washington of holding in the coming months two meetings of the Bilateral Commission, a mechanism activated last year to monitor relations and boost cooperation in sectors profitable for the two parties, which has already had three meetings.
Vidal highlighted at the LASA forum that from the approach that Cuba and the United States began on December 17, 2014, and the resumption of diplomatic ties in July 2015, the two countries have taken important steps for cooperation.
In that regard, she mentioned the signing of nine agreements, including those intended to reestablish regular flights and direct mail.
Moreover, the Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, ETECSA, signed four agreements with U.S. counterparts, while entities of the island signed contracts with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide to manage two hotels in Havana, and they are negotiating a third, she emphasized.
Vidal, the Cuban ambassador in Washington DC, Jose Ramon Cabañas, and the U.S. ambassador to the island, Jeffrey Delaurentis, participated in a panel of the 34th LASA Congress on the new bilateral scenario.
The Cuba section of the world's largest professional organization with about 12,000 members of the academic area acknowledged at the New York Hilton Midtown, before the forum, the work of Vidal and of U.S. official Roberta Jacobson, the most visible faces of the process of bilateral rapprochement during 2015, which led to the resumption of ties.