Cuba and the U.S. Sign Memorandum on Maritime Navigation

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 19 (acn) Representatives of Cuba and the United States signed in Havana on Friday a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in areas of hydrography and geodesy to improve the safety of maritime navigation.

Candido Alfredo Regalado, head of the National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy; and Jeffrey De Laurentis, charge d'affaires of the U.S. embassy to Havana, signed the document in a ceremony at the capital's Palco Hotel.
Regalado expressed confidence that the text will contribute to eliminate the remaining restrictions that limit access to their country of U.S. advanced geo-information technologies and products for the development of production and services.
At the meeting, De Laurentis said that the instrument is of mutual interest with a view to improving the safety of navigation and enable certain maritime economic activities in waters adjacent to each State.
Bilateral talks on the issue began 13 months ago in Havana between authorities of the Hydrographic and Geodetic Service of Cuba and the Office of Coastal Survey of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, and then continued in Washington.
According to experts, this is the first agreement of its kind made since the implementation of economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba in 1962, the longest in the history of mankind and that constitutes one of the main problems for the normalization of bilateral relations.